Daughter of Divinity
by TheHoneyBadgerNight
Summary: Elizabeth Tempus has a lot on her plate: a mating bond between the kings of vampires, a fiance recently lost in a car crash, and then there’s the budding powers she can’t quite understand. Magical realism work, OC x Volturi Kings
1. Chapter 1

Funerals were dark days, followed by a wake where those feeling loss stumbled about in a daze, mumbling thank yous to apologizes and condolences that barely registered. At least, that was how Elizabeth Tempus felt, opening the door to her car as she moved to sneak out before the line of mourners reached her. Their words pricked her ears, scathing and untempered by knowledge that she could hear them, " _They had just gotten engaged…." "College sweethearts, how sad…." "She's holding up rather well, all things considered…" "I heard she grabbed the wheel…."_

"Eliza!" A dark beauty looped her arm through Elizabeth's own,the two women shrouded in black, both in dress and from the looming shadow of the vehicle. She gripped the handle on the car door, briefly musing over whether it would be appropriate to simply slam the hunk of metal into her sister's side and flee.

"Tory." Eliza replied, keeping her face blank. Victorya pouted before pulling Elizabeth away from the driver's side, shooing her towards the passenger's side instead. "I'm fine to drive…" ' _the doctor cleared me to drive….'_ She dared not finish the sentence, knowing how her sister would react. No one trusted the handsome blond doctor, especially not after Bella Swan married into the family and promptly disappeared, leaving Jacob to trail after her and the entire reservation to buzz with gossip. Eliza had been gone for university at the time, falling love with a corpse now buried beneath the ground. She shook her head of the memory, tumbling into the passenger seat of her own car, kicking off the painfully tall black pumps off of her feet and curling into a ball once her seatbelt had been buckled.

Victorya turned the car engine on, letting it hum a rattling breath as it warmed up in the cool atmosphere, melting the snow around them ever so slightly. Silence reigned for a few long breathes before the younger sister turned on the radio from the driver's seat, Adele screeching from the speakers for a moment, "Hello, it's-" Eliza slammed her fist against the power button on the radio, surprising herself with the force behind the action, she was so tired all the sudden.

"Alright then." Tory's voice was crisp, a silent accusation in her words, though there was no fire in her eyes like Eliza suspected.

"I'm sorry, I…" Eliza did not know how to form the words, how to explain that the song reminded her of things better left forgotten, buried away and concealed in the past. "She loved that song..."

"Oh…" Tory sighed softly, unsure of what to say, or handle being the adult in a situation that involved her elder sister. Elizabeth was the oldest sibling of three, a true mother hen when it came to her brother and sister, though now it seemed the roles had become reversed. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Eliza flinched, a flash of a memory sharp and aching through her mind, a man with eyes the color of blood in the middle of the road, the desperate cry she let out, time reversing itself and making her feel a fool. "I want to go home and drink my way to oblivion." She had tried smoking at first, thinking cannabis healthier than alcohol, but it did not numb her in the way she needed to be, if anything it made her think more, dredging up memories she could not purge, Freud would be ever so disappointed in her.

"Or drink your way into a poisoned liver…" Tory mumbled under her breath, white knuckling the steering wheel of the car as they drove from the hill where the funeral was held and back onto the reservation. Eliza remained silent, resting her head upon her knees and closing her eyes for a moment, reflecting on the fact that her makeup was most likely ruined, smudged from the endless tears and thin-lipped smiles of the day.

"Well, would you look what the wolf dragged in!" Tory's face brightened at the sight of the group of men standing on the porch that served as their family home. Or rather, a certain member of the group standing on the porch. The car engine had barely sputtered off by the time Tory had ejected herself from it and into the awaiting arms of Seth Clearwater, her current boyfriend, though Eliza had no doubt he would have already proposed had it not been for Eliza's current situation.

The two melded into one another, embracing with an open intimacy that made Eliza want to cry, only she found she had flat run out of tears. "Hey, Lizzie, are you doing okay?" Seth asked with genuine concern, the men flanking him mirroring the expression on the youth's face.

"I...um…" Words died in her throat, she stood there barefoot and fidgeting with the shoes cradled in one hand and the damned flowers someone had handed her at the funeral in the other fist, though she was at a loss as to who even gave them to her now, the entire day a salty blur of tears and words of condolences.

The pack, as they described themselves and Eliza had begun to mentally refer to them as due to the way they moved as a cohesive unit, watched the woman sprint past them and into her family's home, only to be cornered by her mother, who stood in the kitchen, clutching a mug as if it were filled with wisdom rather than coffee.

"Elizabeth." Bayak Black was a woman whose name fit her rather aptly, for she was of dark coloring, from her stark black hair wound behind her back in a braid to her deep, brown-black eyes that tore the soul apart with a glance. Though Eliza's eyes were a dark brown, people often told her she had her mother's gaze, unyielding, unflinching. Bayak was beautiful, in a soulful sort of way, an unconventional, tribal beauty that her younger daughter had inherited, perhaps because Tory's father was Peter Black, the youngest of the Black siblings and Billy's brother, who was a handsome man in his own right, with dark features and a bright smile. "Elizabeth."

Caught up in her musings, Eliza did not realize her mother had to repeat herself until she met the elder's gaze, sharp eyes boring into her. "Yes?" Eliza asked dully.

Bayak crossed the room, depositing her mug on the kitchen counter and revealing she had something in her other hand, which she opened to reveal a necklace with a charm in the center in the shape of a salmon, whittled from the white bark that grew at the base of her favorite stream. It was a charm of protection, for the Quileute tribe had a tradition of returning the head and bones of the first fish caught in the spring under the belief that the great Salmon Spirit would protect the river and return the fish throughout the year for them to catch. She did not offer, simply tied the charm about her daughter's neck and whispered a quick, silent prayer of protection, that time would flow as smoothly as the river guarded by their ancestors, before stepping back and giving her a squeeze on the shoulders.

"I lost your father very early in our relationship as well." Bayak began slowly, deliberately pacing herself as if she knew of the weight of her words and the connotation behind them. "He bought a ring, but never had the chance to propose…"

"Perhaps it was better that way." Eliza bit back, a slight snarl in her words. She did not want to hear of her father, of the magic man she had never met, who stole her mother's heart and left her with but a fragment of it after his sudden death. Was this a stage of grief, this rage that suddenly fueled her? "He died and you never even had to deal with a body, but my fiance is in the ground now!" Her mind conjured images of worms digging into flesh, a mix of horror and anger fueling her as she pushed past her mother and reached up towards the cabinet that stored the alcohol, only to find it barren. Even the bottle of Bailey's that had remained untouched since a cousin brought it for Christmas morning years ago, arriving far later than he had planned and leaving the bottle behind, was gone. Her mother had stashed the liquids away, hiding them.

"Your grief controls your tongue, Elizabeth." Bayak replied with coldness, "And alcohol will only sharpen it." The woman stood, hands by her side, shoulders squared, as if confronting a demon rather than her daughter.

"Then let it be as sharp as the knife in my heart!" The words seemed trivial and a pathetic attempt at prose and embarrassment flooded Eliza once she spoke, for her mother grinned wryly.

"Six years of schooling, two degrees, and you speak like a child attempting to quote Edgar Allan Poe." Bayak laughed, finding her child's discomfort amusing before catching herself, and moved to hug Eliza once more. "You will make a great teacher."

"I'm sure the Italians will enjoy my musings." It was Bayak's turn to be surprised and it filled Eliza with dark satisfaction. The acceptance letter had arrived in her email nearly a month before, a program her mother did not know the existence of, a dream of teaching abroad that Eliza had never voiced. It was a dream that Eliza had shared with her sweetheart, to live abroad and explore for a year or two before marrying, before settling down. The tickets had already been bought, a small house on the outskirts of the city had it's deposit paid. "I'm going to Italy for a year, well, a school year, Volterra to be exact." The color drained from her mother's face, russet skin turning deathly pale.

"The cold ones live there." It was a statement of fact, not a speculation based on legends, this time it was Eliza who laughed.

"Yes, and Doctor Cullen is a vampire, I know." The words dripped with sarcasm. The family had moved out of state just over a year ago, after Bella had married their son Edward. It was a stroke of luck that the good doctor was returning to his old home to pick up a box of items at his wife's insistence, a collection of kitchen appliances that the woman apparently could not live without.

"Eliza, you can't do this!" It was the first time in months that her mother had referred to her as anything other than her full name, a ploy at politics, no doubt. "You won't be safe!" Bayak's voice rose by three octaves, becoming shrill with panic.

The door swung open, revealing Victorya and her boyfriend, faces sheepish. Bayuk rounded on them, pale face turning red with rage. "You knew about this, Victorya?" Curses flew from the mother's mouth, code switching between English and her tribal tongue before she slammed her palm against Seth's shoulder, "and you! You know what they will do to her!"

"Ma'am, I tried talking her out of it!" Seth protested, raising his palms in surrender, it suddenly occurred to her that Seth only ever called her mother ma'am. "When Lizzie decides something, god help you if you try to discourage her from it." Elizabeth had her mother's stubborn streak, a trait her mother was not pleased they shared.

Eliza ignored her mother and stomped into her bedroom, or rather, her former bedroom. Her mother had kept it the same in her absense, and it suddenly felt childish and trivial. The decently sized room was bedecked in posters, ranging from bands to movies to musicals. No one was surprised when she majored in English with a minor in Theater during college, considering she had a CD of _The Phantom of the Opera_ resting in a player, though lord knows how long it had been since she had actually listened to it. Tearing off her black dress, she threw on the clothes she had prepared earlier in the day: black and white sneakers, a pair of worn in jeans and her favorite red sweater. A part of her wanted to burn the sweater, it was what she had been wearing during the crash, but it was too sentimental to throw away, printed with her University's mascot on the front and decently warm for this time of year. She slammed her door just for the reminder of teenage angst, for she had done so many times when she was younger, she moved to exit the home.

"Elizabeth!" Her mother cowed, moving to physically prevent her daughter from leaving. Bayak ruled over her home, the queen of Mariposa drive, causing her daughter's abrupt departure to spook her to the point of panic. "Don't do this!"

"I'm spending the night at Emily's." She lied smoothly, glancing at Seth and Victorya, who had moved to rummage the fridge but stopped when Eliza entered, daring them to contradict her. Silence flooded the room, a mute standoff between mother and daughter, before Elizabeth grabbed her wallet from the table by the door and her keys next to it and storming off. It wasn't until she was in her car, glaring at the light slab of ice on her windshield she had to wait for her defroster to kill, that she realized her sister had made sure to put her wallet and keys by the door for her, as the younger woman had drived the elder home. ' _Two more days, and I can leave Washington behind me.'_ She reminded herself, though it brought her little comfort.

Author's Note/Meet the Author:

Hello! For my lovely and loyal readers, I am sure you're thinking: "Night, what are you doing? You write ASOIAF fics, not Twilight! Worry not, lovelies, for I have decided to do both.

For those just joining this bandwagon, welcome! You can call me Night and I shall be your author for this lovely fanfiction! I am a Senior at a Cal State, where I am graduating this spring with my B.A. in English and for my classes I'm currently reading a bunch of magical realism and authors native to California, so I wanted to write a fic that incorporates these elements, while also being respectful of cultures and traditions. Hence the Great Salmon Spirit and what not, my internet research showed that to be an actual thing.

Quick overview of this story:

Elizabeth Tempus is the mate of the three Volturi Kings: Caius, Marcus and Aro, though despite the pull of the mate bond, her broken heart yearns for a person she believes to be dead. Though Elizabeth is no ordinary mortal, for the Volturi Queen has long been whispered about as the beginning of the end, the foil to the infallible three kings. Then there is the matter of her father, a man she has never met, but is he just a man?

Next chapter gives a little backstory on Eliza growing up and brings us just past this chapter in terms of the timeline, so chapter three will be when she gets to Volterra and the mating bond presents itself.

Please review, let me know if you like this idea, if I should continue it, that sort of thing!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: For Sarah, my first fan of DoD 3

Samantha loved her, that was all that mattered. It was a mantra in her head as she stared down at the glittering engagement ring, a simple band with an ostentatious diamond. Eliza had been dating Sam for nearly three years, her longest relationship with anyone, male or female, they simply understood each other in the simplest of ways. It was not their relationship that she doubted, but the world's viewpoint upon it. In almost a thousand days together, Eliza had only met Sam's parents once, a tense and perilous dinner that ended with cowing, " _Come home with a husband or don't come home at all!"_ Effectively ending any relationship he had with his daughter.

Thus, when Sam took Eliza up to Seattle to watch _Aida_ on the big stage and popped the question as the cast bowed, fear filled the woman. Though Eliza was bisexual, Sam prefered only women, so logically she had nothing to fret over being blamed for, but still the worry nagged in Eliza's mind: was she ruining Sam's relationship with her parents by being with her? Logic stated it was not so, for Sam would always end up dating a woman, she would not force herself to enter a relationship with a person she was not attracted to, but still the thought persisted.

"Penny for your thoughts, Radimaze?" Sam asked with a playful grin, manicured nails gripped loosely on the steering wheel as she turned down the radio, Adele singing 'Hello'. The two had met when the Port Angeles theater produced a female-led version of _Aida,_ where Eliza played the part traditionally held by a man, while Sam played the female lead and title character. They had spent so much time on the stage that their character's names had become pet names for one another.

"No, I'll take a dollar." She replied cheekily, grinning at her partner from the passenger seat of the Bronco, Sam's pride and joy. There was silence for a beat, before Eliza spoke again, "I need to tell my mom soon."

"What, that we're engaged or that we're leaving the country?" Sam pondered, spinning the wheel as they twisted their way down from a plateau. It was the most direct route back to the Rez, though it consisted of winding roads.

"Both." Eliza replied flatly, a frown tugging at her lips as she spun the ring around her finger. It was Sam's idea to use their degree to teach abroad, to explore before settling down. There was a restlessness in Sam she feared she would never satisfy, though it was also what drew her to the woman. "My mom is convinced vampires live in Italy."

They both laughed before Sam took her right hand and placed it on Eliza's thigh, her left hand still on the wheel. She squeezed slightly, "And the loch ness monster is really your cousin's girlfriend."

Eliza giggled at that, "Nessie is a rather nice girl, a bit young but still pretty." Sam threw her a look as they turned the final bend, a playful one of suspicion, as if asking if she should be worried. "Not my type though, I like my girl with fire in her gut-" The sentence was replaced with a sharp gasp as her seatbelt locked into place, throwing her forward an inch before flinging her backwards as a horrible crunch tore through the air.

The car accident took five seconds in total, from the moment of impact to when Eliza opened her eyes, though it felt like a small eternity. There was a sizzle in the air, the smell of smoke and gasoline. Had they hit something, someone? Blood dripped into her eyes, the first sign of harm and Eliza squinted through the grey, where was Sam?

"Samantha?" Dread coiled like a viper in the pit of her stomach, "Oh god, Sam? Aida? Please!" A sob shook her entire frame, the car was split in two, as if someone had sliced it cleanly in half, separating the driver's side from the passenger's.

"Samantha? Sam?" A voice echoed in a sneer, "Oh god…!" Cruelty in the form of laugher rang in Eliza's ears as a woman, no a creature, appeared before her.

Her limbs were slow to respond as she yanked at her seatbelt, desperate to free herself from the entrapment, her instincts screaming to run, run, run. Red eyes bore into her, moving purposely slow despite how quickly she had moved before. Eliza squirmed, yanking and pulling on the buckle as the monster appeared in front of her, breathing heavily, taking in her fear. The monster's eyes morphed from red to black just as she opened her mouth inhumanly wide, revealing a perfect, sharp set of teeth. Pain, harsh and biting racked Eliza as the creature pierced her neck, draining her of her life's blood.

A thousand thoughts filled a second's worth of time, regret, sorrow, longing. A whimper unvoiced as she desperately thought of Sam, hoping she was okay, _needing_ her to be okay, thinking of her a moment before, laughing and teasing.

"Penny for your thoughts, Radimaze?" Eliza jumped, startled out of her mind upon hearing Sam's voice, the soft music playing from the radio. She glanced around, eyes wild, they were driving down the road, Sam moved to place her non-driving hand on Eliza's leg.

"Stop the car, Samantha!" Her voice was shrill, panicked and made Sam jump. Eliza never called her by her full name, unless she was scared or angry.

"Eliza, what's wrong?" Sam asked, lessening their speed but still continuing down the road, they were approaching the final bend.

"Stop the mother fucking car!" In her panic, Eliza reached for the wheel, sending them twisting and turning before the car buckled against a tree, leaving both driver and passenger in a daze, but remaining together. The world was spinning, blood dripping into her eyes from the same head wound she had before, was time repeating itself, or was she losing her mind?

"Sam? Oh, god, Sam!" Her fingers reached out in the dark, entangling with Sam's own digits. Relief and fear whirled into one, what had she done?

"Sam? Oh god Sam!" A voice mimicked, cold and uncaring.

"No...no, no, no, no no…." The creature was back, eyes of red turning dark as the scent of blood filled the air. Eliza watched, helpless, as she moved towards the injured women, though this time she seemed to sniff, eyes returning to crimson as the monster moved towards Sam instead of Eliza this time.

"Mate…" The word was broken, filled with horrified realization as the creature turned away from Eliza and moved towards the other injured party. The monster cradled Samantha towards her like a broken doll as the world went black.

When Eliza opened her eyes, she was being held and for a moment she thought it was Sam's arms she was in. A siren wailed in the distance, growing louder as it approached. "Miss?" The voice was familiar in an unknown way, like she had heard it a long time ago.

"Her name is Elizabeth, she's looking for a Sam." Another voice supplied, seeming uncomfortable, restless even. How did he know such things?

She blinked open her eyes once more, this time focusing on the face of a blond man with eyes of honey gold. "Dr. Cullen?" Only one man had looks like his, kindness leaking from his eyes. "Where's Sam?" ' _Where's Aida?'_ She thought, not daring to voice it.

The doctor's face hardened before softening in a practiced fashion, like a man used to giving bad news. ' _It's all my fault…'_ Her last thought was of the red-eyed monster, of death. As she slipped back into unconsciousness, she did not see the faces of the men who had come to rescue her from the crash, conversing in quick, soft voices, planning how to cover up the mess another of their kind had created.

A/N:

A flashback before we spring back to the present. I'd love to hear your theories/predictions for this fic!


	3. Chapter 3

Peter had insisted on driving the sisters the airport, cowing about the price of renting a car and having to say goodbyes too soon. Bayak had known Peter since she was a child, though the two did not end up together until years later, when Eliza was a year old. Bayak had left the Reservation the day after she turned eighteen, confidant of her future yet desperate to prove she was more than some Indian girl in a small town. She boarded a greyhound bus from Forks and looped her way through the U.S. and even did a stint in Canada for a while. Eliza grew up hearing tales of her adventures, of a restless spirit calmed by the ever changing land around her. Bayak was nineteen and living in Toronto for a summer when she met Eliza's father, Richard Tempus, a stock market tycoon-' _The Wolf of Wall Street before Belfort even had claws'_ Bayak said once-with money in his pockets and time to burn on a pretty girl. They had been courting for a year when tragedy struck and the plane Richard was on went down on the coast, leaving nearly two dozen bodies in the ocean, never to be recovered.

Heartbroken and pregnant out of wedlock, Bayak returned home to her mother's and surprised everyone in the tribe by giving Elizabeth her father's surname rather than her mother's, though Elizabeth Margaret Tempus did have a much nicer ring to it than Elizabeth Uley. Even after Peter Black won over Bayak and convinced her to marry him, only she took his name, not her daughter. It made things slightly difficult for Elizabeth growing up, being the only one in the family who did not share the family name, a gap made wider when Victorya and Louis were born with their parent's features, the dark hair and eyes, the russet skin tone, while Eliza had the looks of her French father as much as her Native American mother: dark, thick black hair with brown eyes, skin a deep tan, though not red like her mother, or her grandmother before her.

"Italy will be exciting." Peter had been attempting to make conversation for the entire car ride to Seattle, where Eliza and Tory would be departing from, though a majority of his comments fell on deaf ears. "Are you looking forward to getting your sister settled, Vic?" Eliza had openly wept on the phone to a frazzled customer service representative from their airline, who after googling Samantha's name and reading the chilling article about her premature death had called in a favor with his manager to ensure the last minute passenger change went through with any fees waived (because he was _sorry_ for her loss), Victorya was scheduled to fly with her sister to Italy, stay for a week and then return to the States.

"Of course! Europe is so pretty from what I've heard." Tory was all smiles, white teeth flashing with every word. It was an overtly chipper front in an attempt to cheer up Eliza, though the elder made no comment on it. The younger woman was swaddled in a jacket two sizes too big for her and from the hint of dirt and pine coming from the cloth, it was most likely Seth's. Eliza had never been a believer of love at first sight, but it was Eliza who watched Seth's face the first time he saw Tory, the way his jaw slackened and his eyes lit up, it was like Tory was the sun and he was simply the earth orbiting her. Not even Sam had looked at her like that, though she would never admit it.

"Where do you want to visit first, 'Liza?" Tory asked, grinning at her because she knew the answer. They were scheduled to land in Florence and her teaching position was in the southern part of Volterra, close to a spot she had always wanted to visit.

"The museum of…" She mumbled the rest, glancing at Peter before glaring at Tory hotly. Her little sister was as much of a trickster as their mother.

"Of what?" Tory asked, feigning innocence, "Ballroom dancing? The museum of sunshine and rainbows?" She grinned like a cheshire cat, pleased to see her sister still squirmed under pressure, still reacted at all.

Peter, for his part, simply laughed, bright and booming. "Eliza wants to see something violent and dark, I suppose?" He had raised both girls like daughters, despite only one being his own biologically and he was well aware of their interests. Elizabeth had a passion for historical drama, Peter once made the mistake of offering to take the girl to see _Titus Andronicus_ when she was but fifteen. It was not until they were grabbing a bite before the show and Eliza was giving what she called 'historical context' to the play that he realized what he was in for.

"The museum of torture is nearby." Eliza admitted after a beat of silence, causing the other occupants of the car to laugh at her prim and proper tone, as if giving the weather report rather than stating she wished to view a dummy be stretched across a rack.

"I'm sure it will be...fun?" Peter questioned, drumming his fingers against the wheel. The world was a blur outside of the car as they sped down the highway, the large city blooming before them. Eliza enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the urban era, though she herself would never live there. She had grown up too peacefully, with the waters of La Push and the soft hum of the trees. Nature was home to her, no matter how much she enjoyed visiting larger communities.

"Such fun." Tory replied sarcastically, causing father and daughter to laugh. Eliza felt like an outsider when it was just her, one of her siblings and their father, partly because Louis was the spitting image of his father and Tory shared his booming, lyrical laugh.

Eliza hunkered lower into the passenger seat, fidgeting with the sleeves of her shirt. She always had to fiddle with something, whether it be twiddling the strands of her hair (the very reason she had allowed it to grow so long, down to nearly her waist) or playing with the white salmon totem her mother had given her, her fingers were not fond of remaining idle.

Both Peter and Victorya continue to chat and banter for the remaining leg of the car ride, Eliza only chipping in when she felt she had to, as to not worry her family more than they were. No one brought up the reason why Eliza rode shotgun, rather than in the back with her sister. Bayak had outright refused to come, to see her daughters travel towards the belly of the beast.

When they arrive at the airport, Peter insists on paying the overpriced fees so he can park the car and escort his girls as far as TSA will allow him, hugging and kissing both their cheeks, whispering to them how proud he was of his daughters. Though Eliza still held a candle for her dead source of paternity, she could not fault Peter for being her father in every other way.

On the plane, the flight attendant smiles pitifully at the sisters, making Eliza wonder if she knew of Sam's death, of the sudden change in ticket holder, of the fit she had thrown to make sure Tory could take the seat rather than go on a different flight. Her sister, thankfully, seems to understand her discomfort and passes Eliza a pair of headphones and gives her the window seat, allowing her to not be disturbed as she buckles herself in and gaze vacantly out at the tarmac, and then the sky.

~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~

' _Jetlag is a bitch'_ was the first thought of Eliza as she woke up in the hostel she and her sister had secured in the outskirts of Volterra. It was filled with young travelers, backpackers and twenty-somethings who walked off the beaten path in life. The owner was an old man with hooded eyes, who gave detailed directions to anywhere in town a person wished to go with immense detail, down to which shop or sign one would pass in order to get to their destination.

He seemed to have a feral grin when Tory asked for directions to the museum of torture, suggesting instead that they visit a historical castle, something Tory would have liked much better. Eliza, knowing her sister had already done so much for her, chose to allow her sister to lead her towards the castle under the condition that they would go to the museum afterwards. In truth, Eliza felt a pang of guilt, Tory would be returning school in a few weeks, dealing with the hassle of moving from home and into the dorms. She had postponed her summer plans in order to take care of her sister, had dropped everything for the sake of family, she deserved to stare at some dusty paintings and imagine herself as a princess, like when they were children. Eliza was always the dragon, Louis the knight, the thought brought a smile to her face for the first time in a long while.

Tired, hungry and upset that she had to use goat milk for her coffee because the hostel owner was allergic to dairy, Eliza tamed her hair in a long tail of a braid before Tory lead her through the winding streets, smiling demurely as her sister fiddled with her hands, pointing out different sights and wonders. "There! Just between those stone arches, the shield!" Tory was glowing with joy, she was always a fan of finer things, she loved to dress like a queen as a child, draped in sheets like they were fine fabrics. It was a remote entrance, looked over by the hustle and bustle of the streets, one would not know it was there if they had not been looking for it.

Eliza fiddled with the salmon token, soothed by the smooth white wood and tiny indents of carved detail, had her mother made it by hand, or purchased it from the medicine man, Jim, who enjoyed whittling in his spare time. A strange sense of dread and anticipation mixed in her stomach as she allowed herself to be lead into the side entrance of the castle. A gust of wind flew past them on the left, causing her to jump. She glanced about, sensing she was being watched but unable to find the eyes doing so. "Tor, are you sure you want to tour _this_ castle? I mean, we can see about taking a puddle jumper flight, see Versaille? Imagine how mad Louis would be, that we visited his castle?" They laughed, their mother had named each of them after a monarch, though the lone son had been named after a variety of kings in the French's history.

"But this one is filled with many treasures and hidden secrets!" A voice, overly sweet, pricked at Eliza's ears and both she and Victorya turned to find a woman grinning at them. She was beautiful, in an overt way, like the woman had spent her entire life idolizing and mirroring an issue of _Cosmopolitan._ "Come, come, you're just in time for the morning tour!"

Eliza was hesitant for a moment, but upon seeing her sister's face light up at the prospect, she followed the woman into the castle. It was beautiful, even she had to admit, with the exposed brickwork and flashy displays of wealth. The corridor they travelled was meant for visitors, purposely decorated to attract the eye and overwhelm the viewer. Her fingers threaded through the totem, tugging and pulling, spinning and twirling, again and again.

They were met with a small flock of tourists, newly weds and an elderly couple, all eager and taking pictures with flashes turned on. The bright lights irked Eliza, for she knew better than to use bright lights in an enclosed spaces, was no one else capable of etiquette? The salmon looped in and out of her fingertips, a flash of white on her slightly russett skin.

"Everyone, the tour is about to begin!" The beautiful woman clasped her hands together, like a school teacher before a group of kindergarteners.

"How much is this tour, anyways?" Eliza drawled, speaking softly to her sister, who shrugged.

"First tour of the day is free!" Eliza jumped, how had the woman heard her? Her fingers moved faster, stroking the wood, the anger and resentment she felt towards her mother slowly ebbing away. Bayak knew her child, knew that she needed something to press against and feel, to steady her and let her know the world was real.

Like a group of ducklings, they walked together down the passages of the castle, twisting and turning from immaculate room to immaculate room. Eliza stopped dead in her tracks in front of a painting though, the art dated and ancient. It was of a woman, standing at the top of a hill, hair tousled in the breeze as she stared, face not revealed, towards the sea, where ships dotted the horizon. It felt familiar, in an unfamiliar way, a half remembered dream. Tory, seeing her sister, frozen and slack jawed, seized her opportunity and snatched the salmon totem from her grasp, giggling. "Victorya Jane, give that back right now!" Eliza used her mother's words, but they did not carry the same weight. Tory simply giggled and took off to rejoin the group, Eliza had not even realized they had fallen behind.

"Where are the two women?" A voice hissed around the corner, beside the door where the rest of the tour group had entered. Tory skidded to a halt before the man, visibly surprised by his black eyes, boring into her being.

Screams erupted from behind the door, causing Tory to freeze for a moment before turning to escape. Eliza rushed towards her sister, a sense of deja vu striking her, did death have eyes of red, or eyes of black?

"Eliza!" Tory was petrified, bolting towards her elder sister, seeking comfort, seeking safety. The man pounced upon her, ripping into her throat before Eliza could move, the salmon icon slipping from her fingertips and thudding on the marble floor. Sam's face flashed across her vision as she watched her sister be mutilated, fed upon.

There was no denying the truth then, no claiming a concussion caused a delusion. Monsters sought to take everything from Eliza. "No." She did not realize she had been crying until the drop touched the floor, anger and grief swirling within her. "Not again." A power bubbled within her, clawing its way to the surface, mutating with fear and growing with rage. The vampire, for there was no point in denying what he was, lunged at her, but the moment the pain flashed in her body, she was suddenly standing before the painting of the woman again, her sister reaching sneakily to grab her token.

Eliza grasped Tory's hand, pressing the salmon between their palms and fixing the younger with a hard look, "Tory, we need to leave right now." There must have been a panic in her eyes, an off kiltered beating of her heart, thumping through her body, visible to even Tory, for she simply nodded, eyes full of questions.

They moved in the opposite direction than where the group went, a strange feeling that even if she tried, Eliza could not save them, only herself. Eliza guided them, praying to any diety who would listen that they survive, or at least, that Tory would. "What's wrong, Liza?" Her sister whispered, but she could not find the proper words to answer them.

"Death was down that hall." Eliza replied after a long, tense silence. A flash of black crossed the corner of their eyes, spooking the sisters. Eliza pulled Tory behind her, pressing the girl's body between Eliza's own and the wall, shielding her. It was not a man with eyes of black they were met with, but a young girl with eyes of red. She reminded Eliza of a dystopian angel, pure in looks yet demonic in aura. She had shortly cropped blond hair and eyes the color of cherries.

"Where are you going?" She asked with fake sweetness, dread coiling in the room. The girl was barely a teen, but she cast a looming shadow, blanketing the sisters in darkness.

"We're leaving." Eliza bit out, glaring at the girl, while Tory simply watched the exchange, unsure of how to react. The girl tilted her head slightly at Eliza, before shifting her eyes to Tory and wrinkling her nose.

"She smells like a wet dog." It was a statement of fact, though it angered Tory.

"Hey!" Victorya barked, pushing past her sister, unlinking their hands but still holding the salmon's cord about her wrist. A boy appeared, seemingly out of thin air, next to the girl's side.

"Jane, be nice." The boy chided, he too, was strangely beautiful with eyes of cherries and hair of straw, they must have been twins. "We play with our food, not insult them." He spoke in a way that had Eliza's instincts screaming to run, was a caged animal not the most dangerous of all?

"Tory...run." Eliza whispered so softly, she was sure only her sister could hear her, but Tory barely lifted her foot before each sibling was pinned by a twin, who had leapt up and drug them down before either could blink. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the power she had unwittingly called upon before, she needed time to go back, to twist itself for but a moment, but she was so tired…

The girl grinned at her, exposing sharp teeth as she forcefully tilted Eliza's head, exposing her neck. "Pain." Jane whispered, and Eliza's world erupted in fire. She screamed, unable to keep the sound buried in her throat, it echoed over the walls, down the hall where more people died in agony while Eliza lived in it.

"Jane, stop!" A masculine voice called out, snapping something into place in Eliza. Why did a missing piece of her suddenly feel so full? It scared her, for only a part of that gaping hole had been filled by Samantha, and had only widened after her death. Fear and pain swirled, causing her lost strength to find itself within her, and turn back the clock, though not nearly as far as she would wish it to.

Jane was still before her, grinning like a feral cat. "Where are you going?" The words repeated herself, but her actions would not this time. Eliza pushed her sister towards the other open hall instead of behind her, through the doorway that _his_ voice had come from. Though it was a memory of a time that would never be, Eliza yearned to hear it again, to blanket herself in the safety of his voice.

"Just fucking run!" Eliza barked, taking her sister's hand once more and leading them away.

"Liz, what's going on? Elizabeth!" Tory was at a loss, sensing her sister's panic and worrying that perhaps her grief had gotten the best of her, though she too felt a rattling, instinctual fear.

Elizabeth turned, silencing her with a glance before looking past Tory's shoulder, where Jane simply smiled, revealing her teeth once more. Had she made a mistake, giving chase to a beast who enjoyed to hunt? She turned her head again as they crossed a corner, this time being stopped by running into someone else, quite literally.

Both Victorya and Elizabeth were sent sprawling on the floor, the latter taking the former down with her. Had they ran into a wall? No, before Elizabeth stood a man with long, chocolate brown locks of hair framing his face, his dead eyes coming to life at the sight of Eliza. The woman quickly pulled Tory behind her, desperate to protect her even if she had failed before. Fatigue, quick and heavy, drained from her shoulders, spots appearing before her eyes as a mist of black looped her ankles, twisted its way up her legs and towards her eyes, her mouth. A strange mix of hope and fear flooded her as the man opened his mouth, "Mate…" Darkness overtook her, and as she collapsed, the man rushed forward to cradle her against his cold, hard body.

Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, her dear Marcus had watched as three lifeless cords rose and flushed with life, braiding together to make a single, unified bond of gold between three kings and a woman, all of whom had given up on love.

A/N:

Eyyyy! We're in Volterra, next chapter the three kings are introduced. I'm in the middle of midterms right now, so five reviews have to come my way before I write/post the next chapter. Thanks as always for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Marcus cradled the woman close to his body as Alec used his gift on the sisters, letting the one smelling of dog crumple before Alec himself came to fetch her. He wrinkled his nose, bowing before Marcus. "I'm sorry, Master. I should not have allowed them to come so close to your excellency. My sister and I were just…" Marcus was not Aro, so Alec saw no need to tell the truth, that he and Jane were playing with their food...again. The thought of either of them harming her filled him with anger. This human who filled him with hope for the first time in centuries, who allowed him to feel a pull stronger than the binds put on him by Aro's pets, something real.

"Summon my brothers." He commanded deftly, Jane running off quickly to obey as Marcus cradled the woman closer to him, carefully, gently. "Do you know their names?" Marcus attempted to sound indifferent, as he always had, but there was a spark to his words that had Alec eager to respond.

"I watched them enter, their names are Elizabeth," Alec nodded towards his mate—oh the use of the word in even his thoughts! —and then to the girl in his own arms, a few years younger and with slightly darker coloring, "And Victorya. Though they usually referred to each other as Eliza as Tory, or a pet name."

Marcus swept a strand of hair from her face, dipping his finger across her long braid, wondering for a moment what it might look like loose and wild. He carried her, as Alec followed with the other woman, towards his bedroom, placing Elizabeth down on his bed softly, over the covers as not to smother her. When Alec hesitated he waved for him to follow suit, and the two were laid to face each other on their backs, head turned so they might open their eyes to see one another and be comforted, even if just a little.

Aro and Caius entered without knocking, as they were prone to do, though Marcus had long grown accustomed to it. They paced with a slight urgency, recognizing the scent of their mate, just as he did, and rushing forward. "Marcus…" Aro was grinning wider than Marcus had ever seen, delight swirling in his expressive eyes. Aro could mask any emotion but glee, it seemed, and it rang right through him.

"Don't touch her yet," Marcus snarled, protective and cautious, "She is sleeping still, under Alec's persuasion." Where Aro was excited, Caius seemed enraged.

"Why do they smell of dog?" Caius snarled, flitting forward to stand beside Victorya, crinkling his nose before her unconscious form. Alec opened one of their purses, riffling through a wallet within until he pulled out a drivers license and pointed at the younger sister, "Victorya Jane Black, age twenty-two, address is listed as the La Push Reservation in Washington, 1996 Mariposa Drive."

"La Push? Like Jacob Black?" Aro frowned at that, knowing it could cause issues with the Cullens, with Carlisle. Alec opened the second purse, his frown depending at the second wallet.

"Elizabeth Margaret Tempus, age twenty-six, same address." Alec recited, confusing Marcus slightly. They were sisters, he could tell by their bond, it was a tight one of family, his mate had a handful of strong bonds, and a recently broken one, one which caused her pain he was sure. Was she married, was that why they had different last names? Or perhaps they had different fathers?

"Is she who I think she is?" Aro challenged, staring between his brothers, confirming his suspicion.

"It's a trinity bond." Marcus replied, a rare thing indeed, an occurrence he had only read about and never personally witnessed, some said it was an omen of great change, others of destruction. All Marcus could think was it was one of hope. Each had chosen to take a woman in their bed before, call them mates though the bond was never quite gold, always filled with hints of rust, but they were lonely creatures, and Didyme had made him so happy at the time. But their lust for a mate, no matter how impure of a choice in bond, had nearly destroyed them. They had vowed once, to let no woman come between their brotherhood, and the gods had given them what they had wanted, a woman to love the three of them, without need to put one over the other.

"Do you think she felt the pull, that that is why she came?" Aro mused, ever the romantic, the bleeding heart. He pressed his palm against Elizabeth's neck felt the rapid flutter of her heart...what was she dreaming about? He used his gift:

Eliza stood in front of a temple, it sort of reminded her of Indiana Jones, only it was Greek in image. For a moment she thought it was the dream she had about Star Trek, Where Commander Ryker appears to end the simulation on the Holodeck and she ends up saving the world from the Borg. But instead there were two people on the large stone altar of the temple, arguing and shouting.

"Don't you see, this is our chance to live! To really live!" The man was excastic, grinning like a madman, but the woman was not impressed. She sighed and shook her head.

"At what cost? Our children, the humans? What makes us so much more worthy than them of life?" The woman argued, fire spinning from each word, dripping down her lips and burning the man, who grows colder and colder.

"We are better than them! What use are they for, if not for our pleasure?" Ice freezes on his palms as he forms them into fists. Eliza goes to move closer, when suddenly a raven appears before her, squawking, forcing her to move away from the creatures on the altar. The raven moves towards her, ravaging her face and arms as she moves to shield herself, stumbling backwards.

Aro releases his grip over her, noting her heart race increasing despite the use of Alec's gift, then sees the white totem wrapped in her palm. It glows the faintest bit, to the point that a human would not be able to see, but he does. It's a charm, a token of protection, a shield. 'First shape shifters, now totems.' He thinks darkly, he shall have to have a word with Jacob. In fact, he might just summon the entire Olympic coven, he has heard rumors of new members joining.

"Withdraw your gift from her, Alec, leave Victorya under your spell." Aro purred to his one of his two favorite pets, who meekly obeyed.

When Eliza opens her eyes, they focus upon Victorya, snoozing but not snoring, which was rather not like her. For a moment, she remains still, memorizing the relaxed expression on her sister's face, refusing to face the feeling of foreboding for just a moment. She closes her eyes again, takes a deep breath in, then out, reminding herself that she is strong, that she can outlast anything, before opening her eyes once more. She moves to sit up just as she realizes she does not recognize the comforter on the bed. Eliza shifts, looking up to see four sets of eyes on her, all red. Her legs wind themselves into a sitting up fetal position, as if she could kick anyone who came near her, a scream clogged in her throat as upon her movement, one of them raised a hand, silently asking for parlay with his eyes.

Eliza recognized him in a subconscious sense, her memory was hazy, overlapping with what had happened and what she had prevented from happening. Was she going mad? Was she going to lead someone off a building and tell the cops the ghost of her dead girlfriend made her do it, because Alli needed to see Everest one last time? Eliza shook her head, clearing out thoughts of Rushdie and focusing instead on the man whose arms she fell into, quite literally. He moved towards her, holding out his hand as if to shake, thought Eliza feared he meant to use it as a means of grabbing her. But there was this strange, predetermined trust within her that her reaching out her palm, silently cursing her lack of proper manicure, they were still sharp and black from the funeral.

"My name is Marcus." His voice was velvet, pouring into her and making her feel soft and warm. Marcus looked at her with a sense of delicatess, like he feared he might break her. "These are my brothers: Aro and Caius." He motioned to each, who nodded. Eliza could feel her heart racing, though there was little she could do to stop it. She looked towards where the young man had been, but he was gone, disappeared. It startled her, reminding her that she was in a castle of vampires, and even worse...that her mother was right.

"Why aren't you eating me?" Eliza blurted, causing Caius to bark out a laugh. She remembered then that she was not alone, that Tory was there as well. They should have just gone to the torture museum. Her gaze hardened, resisting her instincts as her rational mind provided context, "Like you ate those tourists." She remembered the elderly couple, she overheard them saying they decided to visit Florence for their fiftieth wedding anniversary. They would have have another now, it seemed.

"You feel it, don't you? Even as a human, you do." Marcus challenged, eyes turning black as he stared at her, causing her to fear him in that moment. "Admit it."

"Let my sister go." It was a loop in her head, 'Tory needs to be safe. Tory needs to be safe." "I'll say or do whatever you want, just let my sister go." She alternates looking at each of them, desperation pouring over her. Her hands shake, she squeezes the salmon, prays to her ancestors for help, for mercy.

"No one is going to hurt you, piccola." It was Aro's turn to speak, his voice honeyed. "You're our mate." The words sound so final, ringing in her ears. Does that mean safety or damnation? She thinks of Hades and Persephone, were they happy? It depended on the voice of the tale.

Eliza's mind races, she looks at the men before her, her thoughts tracing back to the monster who was partly responsible for Sam's death, the beast with red eyes. Was she one of their creations? "Please...just let my sister go." As a child, Eliza was eager to get rid of Victorya, the daughter who looked more like their mother than she did, the annoying younger sister, always copying Eliza. Yet here they were, Eliza bartering for her sister's life, betting it against her own. She almost jumps out of her skin when Aro places his fingertips against her palm, eyes losing focus for a moment as she recoils in fear.

"Who hurt you, Elizabeth?" He is angry, snarling at her with a need for misplaced vengeance. How did he know she was thinking of a different vampire? The thought alone that she as surrounded by them was frightening enough, but for him to see inside her thoughts? She shuddered.

"Brother," Marcus cautions, pushing him back, away from her. The man smiles at her apathetically, "Your sister will wake soon, speak to her, make a choice. Stay and discuss what you feel means, or leave and come back when the longing overwhelms your soul." His voice grew detached at the end, as if he knew what such a feeling was, to know incompleteness.

Eliza considered all that had occurred as of late, and of the feeling of warmth that filled her upon looking at the three men. It was like Sam was a speck of light and they were the sun, and she felt guilty for soaking in the warmth after such a time in darkness. She nodded to Marcus, and in a blink she and her unconcious sister were alone in the room.

She took the time it took Victorya to wake to straighten her own clothes and hair, as well as move off the rather large bed to stand by her side. Eliza pondered all that she knew of vampires, from her phase of reading Anne Rice as a teen to listening to campfire tales of the cold ones growing up. With the somber realization that vampires did exist, she pondered what else could possibly exist as well. Wait, were the pack actually a pack?

"Victorya!" Eliza yelled, starting her sister awake. Tory glanced about the room, as if looking to bypass her sister and head straight for an exit. "Are werewolves fucking real?" She felt stupid for asking aloud, but it needed to be done. The sheer look of panic that was quickly masked with a nervous laugh on Tory's part confirms Eliza's panic. "Oh my fucking god." Years of inside jokes that Eliza had never quite gotten suddenly made sense, fueling her rage.

"They're technically shapeshifters, but that's not the point-" Tory started, only to be hushed by her sister's booming voice.

"When were you going to tell me this? When you married one?" For a moment Eliza pictured Seth as a giant poodle in a tuxedo, waiting for Tory at the end of an aisle. How could someone sweet like Seth be a monster too? Were they all monsters in the end?

"Me? You collapsed into a blood suckers arms!" Tory bit back, matching her sister's ire.

"Don't you dare call him that!" Eliza did not understand the need to defend him she felt, but she was controlled by her emotions in that moment and allowed it to seep through. "This isn't about vampires, which of course you knew were also real! When were you going to mention that?" She had never told Tory of the woman with red eyes, though now she was glad she hadn't. What would her sister have done, played dumb and allowed her to think herself mad?

"Elizabeth. We need to leave. Now." Tory was putting her foot down, picking up the discarded purses and lunging the one that was not her own at her sister. But Eliza was rooted to the spot, a sense of panic overwhelming her at the prospect of leaving the men, despite her fear of staying with them as well.

"Tory, I can't. Have you ever heard of a mating bond? I found my mate.." Eliza admitted, surprising herself as the words felt foreign on her tongue. The weight of Sam's loss still presses down on her shoulders, though there is a force propping her up now, one with red eyes. "Look, just give me the day. Let me sort things through, we'll meet up for dinner at that little restaurant you thought looked so quaint." Tory just glares at her, angry and confused by her sister's sudden want to stay in a place she had previously been so eager to leave.

"Promise me." Tory demands, linking her fingers with her sister's, needing the feel of her touch, the reassurance within it. "Promise me you will be safe." She wants to scream, to demand that Eliza come home right that moment, but she can't. How can she deny a mating bond for her sister, when she herself had an imprint?

"I promise." She wraps her little sister in her arms, squeezing her close. Her mind recalls hugs like this, given before long absences: leaving for summer camp, moving away for school, there was a finality to it. Eliza opens the door and leads Tory out, twisting and turning down halls, reversing when they realize they were heading the wrong way, no one interrupted them, though she felt eyes watching them. Fatigue clinged to her bones, making her wonder if she could twist back time if she needed to in that moment.

It takes them a short while to find the entrance they arrived through, Tory hesitant at the sight of it. She does not want to leave Elizabeth alone, not with them, not ever. So they embrace one more time, a long, tight hug, and then Victorya walks away. When she dares to glance back, three sets of red eyes surround her sister, she wonders if she has abandoned sweet Eliza to the wolves.

A/N: So I figured reviews would trickle in and it would give me an excuse to focus on school work this weekend. Then all y'all start following and favoriting leaving detailed, sweet as hell reviews. Thank you all so much for following this adventure.

To answer a few reviews:

Tory is safe..for now haha. I like writing sisterly bond stuff, so she's gonna stick around for a bit.

As for Elizabeth's power, without giving too much away, I'd like to point out the title of the story, the fact that her last name is time in Latin and that she was given her father's surname.

Also a fun fact: I got the idea for this fic listening to the songs "Helpless" and "Satisfied" from Hamilton, because its the same events told from two points of view, which made me think of how hindsight could change previous actions.

I've been considering putting small epitaphs before each chapter, quotes from movies, books or songs, so leave a review if that is something you would like to see. I'm always happy to hear things from you guys, good or bad feedback!


	5. Chapter 5

Elizabeth had always been good at compartmentalizing, putting everything that had ever hurt her in a box in the corner of her mind, sealing it with lots of locks with no key in sight. Yet now the box had sprung open, and like Pandora she awaited for hope to flutter out. Tory had left with a promise in her eye, a sense of determination that meant but one thing: the wolves were going to come for Eliza, a death trap locked into place. Guilt churned in her at the thought of Sam Uley maxing out a credit card for an overpriced plane ticket, insisting on rescuing Eliza like a princess from a tower.

One corner of her mind fretted over the practical aspects of her life, while another chewed over the mystical aspects. Vampires were real, shapeshifters were real, her sister had been dating a boy who could turn into a wolf, her cousin was a wolf. The thought of Jake, the boy whose love of tinkering had began when she allowed him to follow her into their grandfather's garage, turning into a growling, feral beast, churned her stomach. Eliza stood motionless at the arch of the castle door for a few long moments, even after the three men had reappeared, unmoving in an arch around her.

"Elizabeth…" Aro trailed off, though Eliza did not respond, did not even so much as blink. They had appeared without her sensing them, their movements too quick. It occurred to her then that they could easily do the same to her, as they had the others they arrived with. But they had let Tory go, as a sign of good faith, no doubt, though she felt none.

"Eliza," Marcus tried this time, moving purposely slow, his hands splayed out in front of him as if she were a frightened animal. He stepped in front of her, blocking her view of where Tory had long since disappeared.

"What does it mean to be mates…" She faltered, did she call him by his name, by a title? "Marcus?" His name swirled on her tongue, feeling inadequate with her American accent. Marcus, however, preened under the familial use of his name, the commonality of it.

Three sets of red eyes glanced between themselves, calculating a response. Aro flitted forward, spooking her with his speed. 'Death has red eyes.' She reminded herself, shying away from his hands as they touched her bare skin, almost purposely. His fingers traced a loose lock of hair, twisting it behind her ear. Eliza considered pushing him away, but her instincts were crumbling, begging her to relax into his arms, melt into the comfort offered. Aro smiled, strangely in tune with her emotions, her thoughts, trailing his fingertip down the shell of her ear and towards her neck. She flinched when he traced her pulse point.

"I can feel your heart, breaking and mending all at once." Aro whispered, his frown mirrored by Marcus, who viewed her bonds and was not fond of what he saw.

"Brother, she should rest." Marcus chided, moving away from the open door and the sunlight, ending just before where Eliza stood, guiding them towards the belly of the castle. Autumn was just beginning, and the kings had ordered a fire to be lit in the hearth, so when Eliza allowed Aro to gently guide her into the room, the warmth washed over her.

She ignored the high backed chairs and half collapsed in front of the fire, just before the gate that kept the ashes within. Her fingers fiddled with her hair, releasing it from the braid and combing it through with her hands. Some people chopped their hair while grieving, a physical change to represent personal loss, but she could never do such a thing. Her hair was her pride, she had spent years growing it out, deep conditioning and brushing it constantly. Did shapeshifters have long hair in both forms? She chuckled to herself, imagining a wolf version of Cousin It from the Addams Family.

It was not until all three joined her by the fire that she realized she had been led into a person study, where three seats were placed so that each person might glimpse every exit while still enjoying the fire. Eliza sat, cross legged before the three of them, centered. After the heat warmed her face, she twisted, the fire fanning itself out behind her, the men watching her every move.

"I'm sorry, I…" Her words faltered as she fidgeted more, "It's a lot to process, nearly dying and finding out...finding out that storybook monsters are real." Eliza barked out a laugh, was it wrong that she felt the urge to drown herself in alcohol for the night? It had worked the first few nights after the accident.

"How much are you aware of…" Caius trailed off, he seemed the least trusting of the brothers, his lips curved into a sneer.

"Vampires?" She laughed, "My mom would rant and rave about 'the cold ones', I thought it was like when little old ladies warn of the evil eye, the musings of superstition. I knew a kid in school who believed in the Loch Ness monster...oh god, is she real too?" For a moment she took the thought seriously, but when Aro began to giggle, she smiled as well.

"And the wolves?" Caius pressed, looking for a reason to slaughter them, a reason to claim the bond he felt was a false one.

The joy melted from Eliza's face. "Apparently it was a need to know sort of thing." Her mouth puckered, sour like a lemon, "And I had no need to know." Was it because she had left for school, ran from home like a bat out of hell the first chance she had? She was half caste, not native enough, her skin not russet enough. People on the reservation looked down on her for not being fully Quileute, like her siblings. Perhaps she was not part of the tribe, not in the way she had thought.

"Caius, do not upset her." Aro scolded, eyes analysing her every move. How flawed and human she must look to him. Her finger threading her hair, moving it back into a tightly wound braid and cinching it with the leather cord and small salmon. "Where did you get that charm?" Aro asked, curiosity seeping into his tone.

"My mother." She replied simply, smiling wistfully. "She did not want me to come here, she wanted me to stay home, get my teaching credentials and work with kids on the Rez." But that was not what Eliza wanted. 'You have an old soul, child. Lifetimes of heartache make one restless' Her grandma had told her more than once. She was never able to remain stagnant, she needed change, needed life.

"What is its intent?" Aro asked, his own hand reaching towards it. Eliza hesitated before opening her palm, passing it onto him. He hissed the moment it touched him, a tiny sizzling sound echoing as the wood plopped onto the floor, unphased. Aro stared at his hand for a moment, at the quickly healing burn, and then onto the token on the floor.

'What the fuck?' Eliza gingerly picked up the totem, stroking the smooth texture of the white bark. All eyes were on her and she felt so small. She smiled sheepishly, her mother was known on the reservation for her charms and tricks, hence her name. What was it Bayak had said once, when she had a touch too much wine when her friends were over, 'your father called me his little Raven, he never would wrap his tongue around my name, ha! By-ook, it's not so hard.' Perhaps her grandparents knew her mother was a trickster from the moment she was born.

Eliza pocketed the charm, changing the subject quickly, "So about the mating bond..." She smiled, nervous yet strangely cozy from the fire.

"I believe we share a trinity bond. It's been nearly a thousand years since one has occurred." Marcus spoke with certainty, leaning forward in his chair. Eliza leaned in instinctually, his voice was a soft hum and she strove to hear more of it. When her shoulder grazed his leg, he did not move, if anything he went perfectly still, so she stayed leaning against him. "It last occurred about one hundred years before my brothers and I were reborn. A man with the power of fate, blessed with three mates to protect him from the evil that sought to ruin him."

"A tale meant to spook newborns!" Caius rebuffed, folding his arms over his chest. Eliza swore she saw him roll his eyes out of the corner of her own.

"Of the evils of the man of flame?" Aro questioned, sniggering. "All myths have hints of truth. He was said to have three mates, sisters in all but name, and what are we, brothers? As far as anyone need know, we share venom if not blood, that makes us brothers. And here, our lovely mate, in need of protection."

Eliza thought about the woman with red eyes, who had killed her in a time that never was, and wondered if that was who Aro referred to. She bit her lip when the thought struck her that he said 'our,' as in plural. Eliza had accepted easily that Marcus was her mate, his reaction to her presence only confirmed it, the way his face lit up. She sat up straight, recalling the way she had been drawn to Aro before as well.

Eliza sighed, eyes wondering the room and landing on Caius, who met her eyes with a challenging stare. She leaned forward, turning onto her knees and placing a hand on Caius's knee to pull herself up into a standing position, inching closer to him. Eliza dared not to look anywhere but his eyes, her fingertips stretching forward, tracing behind the nape of his neck, like Aro had to her previously. There was an instinctual urge, rattling her bones, to touch the men before her, memorize their faces and the way they smiled and smelled, did vampires have cold, hard skin, or would she find warmth beneath her fingers? It must be the mating bond, clutching for a foothold. When Caius raised his chin ever so slightly to allow her hand to slip to the bottom of his scalp, Eliza smiled.

Whenever she or one of her siblings were sick growing up, their mother would run her nails along their scalps, rustling their hair until they fell asleep. As the eldest, she had learned the trick, it worked well when Tory sneaked into her bedroom at night, crying about shadows on the wall. Her nails grazed his scalp and a purr echoed across the room, deep and rumbling from Caius's chest . She moved to remove her hand, but Caius grasped it with his own, snarling before catching himself and letting her palm drop. She had the sudden urge to press her face into the crook of his neck, let the purr lull her into sleep.

"Instincts go into overdrive when a mate bond is still settling." Aro informed with a cat-who-caught-the-canary smile. "My brother has always been driven by his instincts more than others." Eliza blushed, amusing all three brothers.

"When I was seven, I thought I was going to die." Eliza grinned, noting the concern on their faces, "I had appendicitis, my appendix nearly burst, apparently. All I remember is burning up with fever during a sleepover at Nana Margaret's, my brother and sister attempting to comfort me by chasing and catching all five of Nana's cats, plopping on on my body and rushing to chase one as it ran away. One cat though, Campbell, he simply made a nest out of my hair and curled himself around my head, imagine the EMT's surprise when he found a maine coon curled into a pillow!" She conjured the image in her brain and then tested a theory, reaching across towards Aro and grazing her fingertips over the exposed flesh of his wrist, just where his sleeve ended. The man broke out into a grin the moment they touched, amusement dancing in his eyes

'You can hear my thoughts when we touch.' Her eyes narrowed as Aro turned sheepish. She had never heard of vampires with such gifts, her mind conjuring images of a witch casting spells, cursing vampires further.

"Some are simply special when they are turned." Aro informed, preening like a bird, "Such as myself and Marcus."

"Being special does not make you clever, Aro. Our Elizabeth figured you out quite quickly." Caius snarked in rebuttal, pulling Elizabeth away from Aro and closer to himself. Eliza, for her part, felt a flare of rage.

Marcus seemed the most aware of it, the strain reverberating through the bond. He remained silent, allowing her a moment to process. He was aware of the newly broken bond between Elizabeth and Samantha, it was a thorn in his side, for it seemed to pulse with grief. When her eyes lost the spark of anger, he opened his mouth. "Have you lost someone recently?"

"Is that your gift, sensing emotions?" Eliza bit back, "Or is my life an open book?" Her eyes were hardening, mouth pressing into a thin line.

"I can see bonds, I recognized the mate bond between you, myself and my brothers the moment I laid eyes on you. There is a freshly snapped one connected to you, it pains you." Marcus replied, his brothers gawking at him slightly. It struck him then that he hadn't spoken this much in years.

Eliza fished her phone out from her purse, bypassing the multiple notifications: three missed calls from her mother, one from her stepdad, six from Victorya, along with a string of text messages. She went to her photos, flipping through until she saw one of the two of them, posing with the engagement ring. Her mind recalled the way Caius called her theirs, like she was a piece of property already sold to them. She flipped it around for the trio to see, Eliza grinning so hard her eyes were barely open, Sam's arm wrapped snugly around her shoulders, draped with practiced ease. They were both dressed up, Sam's ash blonde hair twisted above her head, Eliza's loose and flowing around her face, her hand raised to show off the sparkling, humble diamond.

"Her name was Samantha Washington, I was going to marry her." Her words were flat, but her eyes held a silent challenge. Did they still want her now, knowing she loved another woman? Was she still theirs?

"You loved her dearly." Marcus stated, cloaking the room in dark truth. "What happened?"

"We were driving home from dinner." She took a deep breath, Eliza was used to telling the story, to the police, to concerned relatives. She had practiced it, slicing a little bit of her heart and presenting it on a platter before her audience. "We hit a patch of black ice, Sam lost control of the wheel and we spun into a tree. It ripped the car in half from the force. Sam died on impact, Dr. Cullen said, a small mercy. I had a concussion, a few bruises, but was otherwise unharmed." The best way to lie was to sprinkle in the truth. Her broken mind was mended slightly by the truth she could now confirm. The police had said it should not have been possible, for the force of impact to slice a car in half, but it was the only reasonable conclusion they could come to, they did not know what she knew. That the vampire was there, the woman who killed her in a time that never was, as she had come to call her false realities, the creature whose body was sturdy enough to slice a car in two using her own limbs.

"Dr. Cullen?" Aro asked, curiosity peaked. The gears in his mind were turning, working at a quick pace.

"He pulled me from the wreckage. He was in the area and his wife asked him to pick up some kitchen appliances they left at their old house. Apparently it's their vacation home now. Though I haven't seen them in a few years, outside of the good doctor." Eliza shrugged, some say she could have died had the doctor not forced her to stay awake after the crash, though a part of her remembers drifting in and out of consciousness. When she woke up in the hospital, it was Carlisle who broke the news to her, gently and with empathy, though her mother simply simply arrived to see her weeping before the doctor and went into a rage, blaming him and his family for the accident.

The brothers all exchanged glances, speaking in quick, low voices, planning something. Eliza in response simply let out a huff, aware that they were talking behind her back to her face. "I suppose I'll let the immortals discuss." She was exhausted, emotionally and physically. Her mind nagged that she would need to meet up with Tory for lunch, but all she wanted to do was curl into a ball, maybe smoke a little joint and sleep the rest of the day away.

The brothers whispered quickly and softly again, seemingly coming to a decision before Eliza reached the door. Caius was opening it for her before she could blink, she was unsure if she would ever be used to their speed. "Come, there is time before noon yet, you may stay in my chambers until then." He surprised her, and for a moment she pondered if physical touch was what was needed to soften the man. He wrapped his arm around her waist, silently confirming her pondering, guiding her without choice on her part. Unused to being held yet still feeling the comfort of it, she allowed herself to be moved towards a door down the same hall, revealing a more masculine suite. It was spartan in style, with dark wood throughout. She walked slowly around the room, trailing her fingers across the different textures. Caius hovered by the door, watching her move throughout. Once she had made a full circle, Eliza made eye contact with him once more. Silence stretched.

"I'm glad you're here." He said simply, so softly her ears strained to pick up the sound, he seemed so fragile for a split second before his walls rebuilt themselves. Her heart bled, pouring out towards him, empathy overwhelming her. She crashed into his chest, tears pricking her eyes. Samantha was gone, lost to her forever more, while three men, three perfect mates, stood before her. His arms slowly wrapped around her, one hand around her waist and the other threading in her hair at the base of her scalp. Eliza breathed in a sob, Caius smelled like freshly burnt wood, crisp and harsh, yet comforting.

The door swung open once more, though Eliza's back was turned towards it. She felt Caius nod, his chin nudging her crown, before the familiar blackness of Alec's gift overwhelmed her.

A/N:

Shout out to Lauramari for the insightful review and speculations. Bayak means Raven in Quilete, so kudos for pointing out that significance.


	6. Chapter 6 part 1

When Jacob's phone rings, he almost ignores it because it is in the other room and his arms are wound around Nessie and the tv remote as they decide on a movie to watch. But when Alice rushes into the room, eyes wide with the phone in her hand, he sees the caller ID and frowns, it reads Tory with a crescent moon emoji next to it. On the third ring, he answers, "Hey Tory, what's up?" He can hear her breathing heavily on the other end of the line, "Victorya?"

"How ironclad is the treaty, Jake?" Her voice is shaking, people's voices speaking another language in the background, Italian? "Like, it protects every member of the tribe, right? Even my sister?"

Edward flits into the room, speaking quickly to Alice, Renesmee pales as Jacob frowns, the only person who's hearing is not sensitive enough to pick up vampire speed. "What's wrong Tory, where are you?" He had not talked to her in a few weeks, when she called to tell him Eliza was in the hospital after a car accident, insisting she was fine physically, there was no need for him to jet home from Alaska to go to the funeral of her fiancé, Eliza insisted on going alone to it.

"Elizabeth got a job teaching abroad, like she always talked about. We're in Florence and she wanted to go to the torture museum—who wants to see shit like that?—but the guy at the hostel suggested going to a castle instead and—" She's speaking quickly, running out of breath and sighing raggedly. "We went to run, but there was this little girl, like all the Children of the Corn rolled into one, and Eliza ran right into this guy and then we blacked out. And when I woke up, Eliza was talking to them like she was trying to calm down a spooked cat! She can't really be mated to one of them, can she?"

"They went to Volturi castle." Edward assumed, frowning. "We need to call Carlisle, he needs to tell them to run, we'll all be summoned soon no doubt." He turned to Alice, who's eyes glazed over in a vision. Jacob stood and began to pace as he pressed the phone closer to his ear, attempting to drown the other's out so his cousin would not hear them.

"Who, Vicky, who is Eliza mated to?" He spat the words, ignoring the heated looks of the others, demanding answers to questions he really did not want to know either way.

"He...he had long brown hair, and red eyes of course. He had a seal, hanging from his neck, like a house crest in The Tudors. His eyes went from ice to fire when he saw her Jacob, like he could drown in her soul." She shivered, it was like how Seth looked at her, but the thought gave her no comfort.

"Marcus." Alice supplied, snapping back to reality. "She's mated to a Volturi king."

"And Aro will want to see her past, assess her for a gift and turn her right away." Edward said, running a hand through his hair, a tell of stress. "And he'll see the cover up job we did."

"Tory, listen to me, it's going to be okay. I'll look into flights, I'll come get you, okay? Have you told anyone else?" Jacob asked, attempting to do damage control. If anyone in the pack found out, it would be all out war.

"N-no." The fear is back in her voice, "If I told Seth, then he'd tell Sam, and Sam would tell my mom-" They both shuddered at that prospect, no one wished for the wrath of Bayak to fall upon them.

"Okay, okay. It's okay." Jacob soothed, frown deepening when Edward's phone began to ring and he held it up, it was Carlisle calling. "Just stay calm, check into a hotel or a hostel or something, just go somewhere safe and stay there until I get there."

"But I'm meeting Eliza for lunch!" Tory panicked, "She promised me if I left her there, we would meet for lunch!" There's a rattling sound on the phone as Tory pushes through a crowd, desperate for a brightly sunlit area.

"It could be a trap." Nessie pipes up, her early memories involved the fear of the Volturi, it seemed to simple that they let Tory go. One could never be sure what the brothers were planning.

"Is there outdoor seating at the place where you guys are supposed to meet?" Jacob probes, Edward begins to pace as well as he completes his own phone call.

"I think so…" Tory whimpers, was she crying?

"Tory, listen to me. It's okay, sit in the sunniest seat and wait for Eliza, if she comes alone, convince her to stay in the sunlight, Bella and a few of the Cullens are in the UK right now, it's a much shorter flight. When night falls, meet up with them." Jacob was in full alpha mode, he needed to protect his people, his family, his pack.

"Is Eliza going to be okay?" Her voice betrayed her youth and a naive hope that is lost with age and time, clinging to her words. "She promised me she would be okay."

"I'm sure she's fine, I assume you told her the truth, about everything?" He's hesitant to ask, but he needs to know.

"Well I woke up to 'Victorya, are werewolves fucking real?' So...yeah." She's sheepish for the first time, fearing she did something wrong. Jake sighs, he would have preferred to have told Eliza, he had planned to visit her after she started teaching in the La Push area, like her mother had predicted last Christmas, but now she had found out for all the wrong reasons.

"Okay, calm down. No one is mad at you...just don't tell your mom anything yet. Neither of us want her jumping on the next flight to raise hell." Jake instructs, moving towards the bedroom he and Nessie had been using and began to throw his clothes into a bag. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay..okay." Tory sighs into the phone, "I love you, cuz."

"I love you too, Tor, it's going to be okay. I gotta go, I'm going to pack." He listens to her mumble a goodbye and then throws his phone on the bed and curses. Edward appears in the doorway with an equally grim expression.

"Carlisle has summoned the entire coven to Volterra, he was quite interested to meet our new members and discuss a human that he saved." Edward informs, crossing his arm, "Carlisle couldn't glean too much, but apparently Eliza is fearful of a woman from the accident, though she did know her name."

"Well…shit." Jacob sighs.


	7. Chapter six, part two

Aro and Marcus enter Caius's rooms just after Alec does, watching Caius cradle their mate in his arms, inhaling her scent before laying her down on the couch; unlike his brothers, he saw no need for a bed. All three men watched Alec layer his gift over Eliza, keeping her sleeping and numb. "This day has drained her, and it is not yet noon." Marcus mused, reclining on the arm of the couch.

"She lied to us." Aro informs primly, both upset and intrigued. He saw no reason to call her out on the fact, it would only stir up more problems. Elizabeth was like a restless sea, a churning tide, the moment she began to open up to them, to the bond, she closed herself further. "She was attached, even now she fears a female vampire."

"One of the Cullens?" Caius asked, rage building, "It was that vegan pet of yours who found her, was it not?" He paced the room, pausing ever so slightly at the points where his mate's scent lingered. Had she known, subconsciously to touch and mark his room, or was she just a tactile creature? He looked down at her, boring into her sleeping face, wondering how a human could be his mate. Though, he mused, she would be an exquisite vampire.

"So she said, if he was, then he would have scented another vampire in the area. Perhaps he was tracking the vampire when he stumbled across Elizabeth." Aro replied, grazing his fingertips across Elizabeth's exposed flesh, flashes of ice danced across his vision, a man with blue eyes and frozen hands. What created these dreams? He dug his hand into his pocket, pulling out a sleek, newer phone. He tapped at it lightly, scrolling through his long list of contacts to 'C,' Carlisle answered on the third ring. "Carlisle, my dear old friend!"

Marcus leans back, reclining against a supporting pillar with barely open eyes, focusing on the phone call. "Aro, dear friend." Carlisle returned, "What do I owe this pleasure?"

Aro pouted like a child, "Can't I chat with my old friend? We haven't had a chance to catch up since you became a grandfather! How is my little hybrid?" There was an undercurrent of a threat, a reminded that he allowed the girl to live by his mercy.

"She is well, Renesme is nearly fully grown, a vibrant young woman." Carlisle hesitates, picking his words. "Perhaps we will plan a visit soon."

"Well why don't you and your mate come to Volterra with the girl and her mate? I'm curious to ask after a few things." Aro knows he is commanding, not asking. It was more entertaining this way, letting him squirm.

"Oh," Carlisle pauses, "What about?"

"A human was attacked recently in your old territory. She has a memory of you, saving her. With your perfect, vampire memory against her flawed, human one, I would like to know the real story." Aro gave little away, lining up the chess pieces in his mind, knight takes rook.

"Of..of course. Esme and I are in London, we'll catch the next flight to Italy." Carlisle does not seem keen to come, but Aro is overjoyed, giddy even.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" He makes quick work to end the phone call before addressing this brothers, "I want that vampire bitch found, Jane can play with her for years before I'll be satisfied."

"Do you really want to give Jane another toy?" Marcus chided, "She still has not been punished for almost making one of Elizabeth and her sister!"

Aro pouted, as if he had forgotten. "Right, I'll inform Jane she shall not drink from humans for a month, I'm sure feasting on animals will tame her slightly." The blood of animals dulled the senses, perhaps it would be good for her to not be so sharp.

"Speaking of Elizabeth and her sister." Caius interrupted, "Our mate promised she would meet with her this afternoon. That will not be happening."

"Not by herself of course, humans are such fragile things." Marcus replied, "We should send Felix or Demetri with her, they look about her age to humans."

"It's daylight still." Aro cut in, "We cannot risk exposure." He frowned, watching his brothers steal glances at their mate when one thought the other was not looking. It had not sunk in completely yet, that she was really here, that she was theirs'.

"They had hide in shadow, she need not know she's being followed. An illusion of trust." Caius compromised, though if he had it his way his mate would remain locked in his room until after her newborn year. He could bring a bed in, though not for sleeping.

"Fine." Aro agreed.

"Very well." Marcus conceded, "We should wake her, tell her to see her sister."

A/N: I split this chapter into two parts just because I didn't want to confuse anyone. The call that Edward references is the one in this chapter, same timeline, two different points of view. Next chapter will be Tory and Eliza reuniting, I'm debating having a family member call one of them, and will end just before the Cullens arrive. As always, thanks for reading and please review!


	8. Chapter 8

Eliza woke up on the couch, dazed and confused. Had she passed out, again? But she hadn't even twisted time again...She rose slowly, before a hand pressed down on her chest, curling her body further into his. Caius smiled ferally down at her, causing her to realize she had made a bed on his body, she shivered. Eliza smiled sheepishly, her head and upper torso were resting on his thighs and stomach, or rather his abs. His suit was a soft cotton, comfortable against her cheek, so she stilled, looking up at him for a long moment. "Did I pass out again? What time is it?" His hand stroked up and down her side, teasing and ghosting over her skin, distracting her from her own questions.

"It's one in the afternoon, I assume you are going to meet with your sister soon?" His voice was cool, level. It surprised her, she was waiting for them to hunker down, demand she never leave their side again.

"Yes, I suppose I should…" She kept waiting for a caveat, but he simply stared down at her, fingers wandering.

"Or you could stay here...with me." Desire, overwhelming with heat, suddenly washed over her, causing her to reach up her hand, pulling Caius down closer to her level as she caught his lips with her own, a soft kiss he quickly turned into a clash of tongue and seat. He pulled her upwards, into a sitting position on his lap, his fingers bruising her sides as he pushed her flush against his torso. Eliza pushed him away after her head began to spin, she had run out of air. She huffed a few breathes, shielding herself with her hair so she did not have to look at him, though a part of her felt like he simply leaned back and grinned, a lion with his prey submitting before him.

She ducked her chin, unsure of what came over her. "Sorry…" Eliza blushed and went to move off of his lap, realizing just then that she was sitting on him. His hands squeezed ever so slightly on her hips, keeping her in place. He lifted his dominant hand and brushed her hair lightly away from her face, looking ever so pleased.

"I knew you would yield to me first." He breathed huskily, moving to lift her shirt off of her form. She leaned back allowing him to remove the cloth before moving to make quick work of his. Under his suite was an undershirt, but just as she moved to remove it, Aro called her name.

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth…" His hand appeared on her shoulder, shaking her slightly. She opened her eyes and gasped, finding the three brothers looking over her, Aro frowning, green in the eyes. His fingers dipped onto the exposed expanse of her shoulder, he had seen her dream. Her dreams had been strange lately, centered around a man of ice and a woman of fire, so dreaming of Caius was a welcome relief, though not when Aro was aware of it.

"What is it brother, see something you shouldn't have?" Marcus asked, noting Aro's sulking form. Eliza blushed scarlet, gaining the attention of Caius and Marcus, while Aro simply lifted her to a seated position and stepped back.

"It's just because his scent is littered in the room, she's drunk on it." Aro sniffed, causing Caius to grin. The blond stepped forward, taking Eliza's chin in his palm and tilting it so she was forced to look at him.

"What have you been dreaming about, my dear Eliza?" His words were a purr and she melted slightly at the familiar use of her name. Caius flashed his teeth, preening before Aro and Marcus, who both allowed him to have his moment, a fleeting second at best.

"I need to go, Tory is probably worried sick by now." Eliza changed the subject. She shuffled off of the couch straightening her wrinkled clothes. Just like in her dream, she waited a beat for them to contradict her, but the silence stretched. She combed her fingers through her hair, fidgeting her way towards a lone mirror hanging from the wall, encased in sturdy, carved wood. Eliza mused it was worth more than her student loans, with it's finely sketched details. Her hair was mussed from laying down, makeup on her cheek smudged away, she was a hot mess. Eliza found her purse perched by the door, and opened it to reveal a full sized hair brush and small compact full of makeup. 'Always be prepared, you never know who you might run into' Her mother always cautioned, Eliza could not remember the last time Bayak had left her home without at least mascara on, always worried about what others might think.

She ran her brush across her scalp, down in broad motions as she detangled it, smiling with amusement at the shocked looks across her mates' faces. It still felt strange to identify them as such, but it was slowly sinking into her subconscious, blossoming into a comfort she had not known she needed.

"She's going to tear her hair out of her scalp!" Aro whispered scandalously to his brothers before flocking to her side, "My dear, work out the knots from the ends first!" Eliza laughed, realizing for the first time that all three men had longer hair than most, a sign of their age, no doubt. Aro frisked the brush from her hands and began to brush her hair with a childish gentleness, Eliza sighed in pleasure. Sam had called her a cat once, content to be pet and pampered.

"It seems Caius is not the only one with a weakness for affection." Marcus teased dryly, causing Caius to shove him a tad harshly.

Eliza, reclining back on Aro slightly, watched with hooded eyes. "You're like children." She drawled, "How old are you all anyways?" The smile fell from her face when no one answered, the silence deafening.

"I forget." Marcus says with brutal honesty, "I remember how proud the romans were at the creation of their twelve month calendar, but so many civilizations track their time differently, one can hardly give a definite date."

"Damn." Eliza mumbled, feeling foolish that a part of her was curious about their astrological sign. Tory had never let her live it down, using someone's sign as an excuse for their behavior. She had marginalized fights between she and Sam, blaming it on Mercury being in retrograde, or the fact that she chose to date a Gemini (Gemini and Leos rarely lasted, apparently, they burned too brightly). Time was such a finite thing to her, everything mattered about it, the day and year she was born connecting to some grander definition of purpose in the world, a confirmation of the importance of her existence. "I never thought I would be so attracted to older men." They surprised her by laughing genuinely, pleased with her sharp tongue. Eliza blushed, if they thought her witty they should see her not sober, her wagging tongue had gotten her into trouble before.

"So you admit your attraction." Aro purred, causing her to laugh. She pulled a compact of face powder out, dabbing it lightly over each of her cheeks before placing the items back in her purse.

Eliza pursed her lips as she glanced between the three men before her, weighing her words. "I've always wanted to be a teacher. Growing up, I made my younger siblings and cousins play school house and I love working with kids even as an adult, I got offered the teaching position in Italy before Sam passed and I jumped for it at the time. I had moved home for the summer to figure out my future while Sam got a job straight out of college in Seattle, a temp position that was going to be over right when my position started. It was an adventure, this big opportunity, but now I find myself in a foreign country with a language I don't speak, with a sister who was supposed to stay a week, but now I fear she's going to either drag me back to La Push or call our mother and have her do it for her." Eliza did not realize she was crying until Marcus stood in front of her, wiping a stray tear. She always was a bleeding heart. "And the worst part is I have genuine feelings for three men, when I just buried my fucking fiancé less than two weeks ago! Like, how shitty of a person am I?" She was sobbing all at once, taking heaving breaths. Everything came crashing down at once, catching up with her.

Caius stood back, at a loss while Marcus shushed their mate, cradling her in his arms, Aro simply placing his palm against her wrist, eyes fluttering as he read her jumbled thoughts. Guilt, heavy and dreaded, slammed into him, morphing his face into one of sorrow. "Oh, piccola…"

Eliza allowed herself a moment of weakness, breaking down and crying for a few long beats. When her heart no longer pounded for the injustices of time, she pulled away from Marcus's arms and barked out a laugh, "Well, there goes my makeup." She drug her wrist across her eyes and frowned, embarrassed by her own humanity. "I'm sorry, I should go." Eliza walked two steps forward before Caius surprised her by wrapping his arm around her waist, as if to escort her. He moved her towards an impressive wardrobe, removing a long, woolen coat of jet black and placing it about her shoulders, weaving her arms through before buttoning the top button as if she were a child.

"The weather this time of year is unpredictable, it can get cold for humans." He did not seemed completely satisfied and moved to look out the window, clouds were gathering to make a storm, perhaps it might even rain, Caius smiled. "Let me walk you to your lunch, I will leave you will your sister. You can join us again this evening for supper."

Eliza smiled brightly, only her grandmother called dinner: supper, her heart ached slightly to return to the home she had only recently left, if just for a moment. "Alright, but I wouldn't recommend trying to butter her up." She glanced about conspiratorially, as if about to share a secret, "She can be quite the bitch, but I love her to death."

The brothers laughed, pleased that their mate was snarky at times, even when the humor was to cover up her own insecurities. She would do well with the politics of other covens.

~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~

Tory had given the waitress a fist full of European bills, she was not sure how much it translated to in American currency, but it was enough to score her a seat in the most open part of the outdoor seating area, a single dash of sun coming down on her scalp. When she had arrived, the warmth of the sun beat down heavily, but as time wore on the clouds descended. It would take five hours at most for Doctor Cullen and wife to arrive, it had already been nearly four, she could do this. Tory reasoned to herself that if Eliza wanted to leave, they would have to let her go. How was it Seth had described imprinting? Like all the joy in the world would turn to ash if he could not share it with her. Surely, a vampire mating bond was similar? Her thoughts were assumptions that vampires and werewolves responded to bonds in the same way, though she had no way to know for sure.

Tory scanned the crowds of people, it was a weekday so it was not too filled, but a mix of locals and straggling tourists remained, lunching and exploring. She tried to remember what Eliza was wearing that morning: a razorback, loose shirt with a pair of leggings and her favorite grey boots. Yet scanning the crowd, it was a shock of blonde hair that caught her eye, as well as the way people seemed to instinctually give the pair walking a wide berth. She struggled to breathe, across the path was Elizabeth, walking arm and arm with a Volturi King, half melted into his embrace. Caius looked like a strutting peacock, nose in the air as he whispered to his companion, something funny by the way her face lit up with a laugh, brighter than Tory had seen on her in a long while. He was bundled far more than the temperature required, long button up shirt with leather gloves and slacks, covering as much skin as possible without drawing too much attention.

He stayed just outside of the line ray of light, letting Elizabeth bask in it instead, her hair like a halo around her face, cheeks rosy. Why did she look so happy? Where was her grieving, despondent elder sister? And why around the blond, wasn't the brunette her mate?

"Hey Tory." There was a nervous quiver in her voice, her smile slightly tight. Eliza slipped her hand down to where Caius's rested on her waist, giving it a slight squeeze before detaching herself from him. "I'll see you later, okay?" Eliza looked like a teenager at the end of a first date, ready to run inside for giggles and gossip.

"Of course." Caius replied, as if it were obvious. He flashed a glance at Tory before kissing Eliza on the cheek, barely catching the corner of her mouth. When he walked away, Eliza's eyes followed him until his figure faded, a hint of longing shadowing her face.

"You're not coming home with me, are you?" Tory blurted, holding back tears. Any hopes of grabbing Eliza's hand and running, running until they were back in Washington, safe from the world in their grandmother's kitchen. "If they really care about you, they would let you go."

Eliza half collapses into the chair across from her sister, sighing heavily. "I am not a kept woman of any kind." Her temper flared at the insinuation, though she knew it was not meant that way. "Would you run away from Seth?"

"Seth and I have been together since we were seventeen!" Victorya barked defensively, narrowing her eyes. They had spent years together, when Seth finishes the Fire Fighter program, they were planning on moving in together, maybe settle down and raise a family after Tory finished school.

"And do you think he had the guts to ask you out before the mating bond?" Eliza challenged, her anger making her rash, she added, "Of course not, even then he still came to me to ask for help!"

Tory glared at her sister, she had long suspected Seth had help planning his proposal to ask her to prom. She had assumed Jake helped him, what with him playing her favorite song at that age, both humiliated that The Backstreet Boys was blasting outside of her window and flattered that Seth was waiting below the pane of glass, with roses and a giant sign that read rather corny-like, "You are my fire, taking you to prom is my one desire. Say yes?"

"That's different." Tory ground out, crossing her arms with a huff. "Seth is alive, not our oldest enemy!" The moment the words slip from her mouth, she knew she had made a mistake. Eliza looked like she wanted to hit Tory, her fingers twitching as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Thanks, Tor, I really appreciate your love and support." Eliza glared, standing up so quickly her chair rattled, nearly falling over, "You know, I expected this from mom, maybe even from Louis, but not you." She had gotten earfuls from both her mother and her brother about how Seth and his family had spent Christmas with Charlie Swan and his daughter Bella, rather than with on the Reservation, because apparently they were too close to vampires. The thought of Seth fraternising with the enemy had been shoved onto Tory, who now would have to deal with her sister dating a vampire, perhaps even turning into one!

"Elizabeth." She huffed, standing from her seat. "This is nuts, you can't just drop everything to run off with some hot guy just because your girlfriend died!"

The temperature around them dropped so quickly people glanced about, as if a breeze had cut through the open pavilion. Eliza's hands quivered, for a moment Tory thought she saw her sister's fingernails turn blue, but the elder curled her hands into fists before she got a better look. Elizabeth opened her mouth as if to say something, but the snarl died in her throat and she simply sneered at her sister before moving to walk away. Tory grabbed her wrist, the salmon totem seemed to glow a vibrant white, warm to the touch. Elizabeth snatched her hand away, leaving the wooden charm threaded through her sister's fingers.

Tory moved to return it, but Eliza glared hotly at her. "Take it, I know how jealous you were when you saw it, I'm not sure why, you'll always be mother's favorite." The sisters had always fought over that fact, that Bayak seemed harsher on Eliza than Tory, while Peter coddled Eliza because he felt he could not be her father in any form if he was rude, but with his own child he could scold and pester as much as he desired. "I wouldn't be surprised if that position is cemented once you inform her of my choice to remain in Volterra for a good, long while." Eliza was purposely vague, refusing to give a definite date.

"You know what this means, right?" Tory did not want to say what was hanging between them, a valley of silent threats. "Jake nearly lost everything when he sided with Bella over the pack." Sam had arrived at the Black home with rage in his heart, thinking that if anyone could convince the Clearwater siblings to return, it would be Tory, but she had refused, claiming Switzerland, neutrality.

"And people actually saw Jacob as one of them, so I'm screwed either way." Eliza replied, voice tense. Tory sighed in exasperation, shifting her weight from one foot to another, unsteady, unsure. "And you won't accept me anyways, is that it?"

Tory frowned, "Look, I get you need to figure this out, but can't you come home for a while too?" She looked about to cry, Eliza stilled.

"Will I be welcome at home?" It was like coming out all over again, only this time her mother would actually react. When she told her mom she liked girls as much as boys, Bayak had placed her hands on her hips and said, "yes, and?" As if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Would she react the same if she brought three men home, three vampires? Her world seemed to crumble around her, but her mind warned her that there was no future before her that resisted the mate bond, the feeling of completion.

"Come home," Tory begged, "Even if mom is mad, dad will want you at home." She pressed her hands into Eliza's, attempting once more to give her the salmon, the blue receding from her nails at the touch of the wood.

Eliza withdrew from her sister, sighing heavily. "For Christmas." She promised, it always was her favorite holiday, with lit fires and snow. Tory nodded, feigning the smallest smile.

"I'll see you soon, okay?" Tory, too, is purposely vague in her timeline, though it seems a more more recent soon than Eliza had meant with hers. The two sisters parted ways, the younger whispering a prayer to the totem in her palm, the elder compartmentalizing her thoughts.

Unbeknownst to either sister, a vampire trailed them. Demitri shadowing one sister, Felix the other. Demitri watched as Eliza placed her headphones in and wandered the city, slipping in and out of shops and even lurking through a museum, always smiling when someone spoke to her, but remained neutral otherwise. Her mind was easy to trace, booming with a musical quality. Felix had a much easier, more interesting route, as he followed Tory to the airport, where she shook hands with Carlisle and hugged Esme stiffly as they inquired after Seth and his family.

Both men would report to their kings, their masters, of course.

A/N: So I had a glass or two of liquor for St. Patty's day and Eliza's dream was born haha. Next chapter will have a cliff-hanger ending, just warning you. But that also means we're coming up on our first big plot point! Yay, haha


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I reference a song in this chapter, though I recommend the cover to listen to while reading, it's called "Sleepwalking" and the cover is by This Wild Life, originally performed by Bring Me the Horizon.

Eliza walked slowly through Volterra, her headphones in her ears, playing her latest playlist Melancholy AF. She always titled playlists based on the mood she was in when she made it, or what it was meant to invoke within her. "Time stood still...the way it did before...it's like I'm sleepwalking…" It was an apt description, as of late she did feel like she was stumbling through her life.

As a child, she knew she wanted to get off the Rez as soon as she was able, she had planned and persevered, worked her ass off to get half of her tuition paid for with grants and scholarships, funding the other half with student loans. She had gone straight into the Masters program once she finished her undergrad, partly because she was offered a spot after the chairwoman of the program saw her present at a research competition and highly recommended she apply, and partly because she felt at a loss in life. Sure, she wanted to be a teacher, but where did she want to teach?

Wandering around Italy, listening to the chatter of the locals and seeing how excited they were to practice their English with her, she smiled when spoken to. Perhaps she was meant to teach English to speakers of other languages, no matter what age the pupil. She meandered into a museum or two, her earbuds blocking out the sounds of other patrons. There was something fulfilling about staring at a painting, alone, drinking in the artwork.

When the sun began to set over the sky, inking the world in pinks and purples, Eliza decided to return to the castle. She wandered the streets for a few minutes, turning down paths she thought looked familiar, realizing rather quickly she was quite lost. As it grew darker, the shadows looming larger and longer, Eliza spotted a clock tower blocking the remaining rays of light. She moved towards it, but a loose cobblestone had her sprawling on the ground, wincing as she instinctually pressed her palms forward to catch herself, scraping her skin with tiny rocks. "Fuck…!" Eliza growled, hissing in pain. She felt like fool, wandering around a city she had only just stepped foot in, though it wasn't like she could just put "Vampire Castle" into google maps and have it show her which streets to take.

"Are you lost, little bird?" A voice cooed, red eyes glowing in the dark. Eliza's heart raced at the shock of the man simply appearing, his voice echoing over her music, causing her to pull the headphones from her ears. She crossed her arms, unconsciously attempting to shield herself as the man walked underneath the glow of the street light.

"I'm fine." She smiled tightly, uncomfortable with the way he seemed to scrutinize her, sniffing the air.

"You smell like one of the Masters…." He drawled, stepping closer, she stepped back, he followed her forward. "Why is that?" Eliza blinked, and he was directly in front of her, her breath tickling his face as he curled his lips in a snarl.

"Get out of my face." Perhaps it was the emotional turmoil of the day, perhaps it was because her manifesting power gave her a reckless sense of self security, either way Eliza was in no mood to put up with anyone's shit at that moment. The woman side stepped and went to leave the vampire behind her, but he reached out to grab her shoulder, spinning her back around. Eliza felt fear, coursing over her and reminding her of how mortal she truly was.

The man's face twisted monstrously, fangs flashing in the light. "Are you a pet, a future meal, or a thief?" He looked younger than her, perhaps twenty, twenty-two, but his fingers dug into her shoulder, bruising it no doubt.

"She is your Queen." The man was gone, no longer in front of her but being pressed against a stone wall by another vampire, draped in a pitch black cloak with the Volturi seal. "You should know not to touch that which isn't yours." Demitri grinned, glancing about to confirm no one was nearby before savagely ripping off the arm that had touched Eliza.

She winced, it sounded like tearing metal, not flesh, reminding her of the car accident, of the woman with the mocking voice. 'Death has red eyes.' She reminded herself, turning and walking quickly away while the two vampires fought. Her mind reasoned that she must be close to the castle, if a vampire was aware of her. What did he mean by she had one of the master's scent on her?

"Clever, cautious, Caius…" She mumbled to herself, adjusting the sleeves on the thick coat he insisted she wear. No vampire would touch her if she had been marked, had been claimed. 'Are you a pet, a future meal, or a thief?' The man's words echoed in her brain, rattling in her bones. Were those her three options, to be kept as Tory had suggested or to be made a meal of, or perhaps to simply steal her life back, a thing she no longer had possession of.

The defensive vampire flitted to her side, an arms length away, politely distant. "I'm Demetri by the way." There was a hint of smugness in his voice, as if he expected her to collapse at his feet in gratitude.

"Aro promised me I would not have to be accompanied." Eliza felt like it was the dark ages, the idea that a woman grown would need an escort seeming archaic in her modern mind. She scrutinizes Demitri for a moment, "It seems he lied."

Demitri was polite enough to look sheepish, "When the sun began to set, the kings grew weary, the night can be a dangerous thing."

"For the night is dark and full of terrors…" Eliza mumbled, smiling despite herself. She glanced back, where the other vampire cradled his missing arm and threw her a dark look before disappearing from her view, going off to hide and heal no doubt. "Is it normal to rip off people's limbs?" She was half surprised by her own lack of reaction, maybe because she was expecting blood to gush from the missing limb, spray everywhere like in horror movies, but instead it was like removing a Barbie's arm, it just popped right off, no blood, nothing.

"When someone touches what they should not, yes. Remove the hand from the thief, remove the arm of a man who touches the Queen." Demitri stated, as if it were obvious.

"I am not a queen." She laughed, thinking of her brother, Louis, and his nickname for their mother: the Queen of Mariposa Drive. Would that make her a princess, even if the name was given in jest, because their mother treated her home like a castle.

"You are the mate of my kings, does that not make you at least queen consort?" He was a sarcastic man, who slowed his quick pace to remain in step with her. Her heart ached for Louis, who would do the same while complaining that at five-foot-five, she was too short compared to his bulking frame.

Eliza sighed, stopping once they reached a corner that diverged into two roads, pausing and glancing about. "You don't know how to get back, do you?" Dimitri asked, clearly amused.

"So you have been following me…" Eliza grumbled, crossing her arms. The sleeves of her coat were too long, making her wonder if the man from before thinking her to be a thief was right in his assumption, it was obviously not her's. The thought stretched, she imagined sneaking into Caius's closet, rustling through all of his fancy suites just to steal the coat and sneak off into the night before anyone caught her. The thought was ludicrous, though the idea that she was a queen was even more so.

"One does not have to follow to see who is lost." Dimitri said with a quoting tone, though she had a feeling he just pulled the phrase out of his ass. "I simply stumbled across you heading home...the wrong way."

She skidded to a halt, home? The word was foreign to her. Once, she would have pictured La Push, another her apartment with Sam, but now? Home was a construct of shadows, of darkness.

"Miss Elizabeth?" Dimitri asked, in a way that seemed to not be the first time. How long had she paused herself? He placed his hand, gently onto her upper arm, she shivered.

He stared at her, as if seeing her for the first time, before linking his arm with hers and softly leading her towards the castle. Neither spoke, they simply listened to the echoes of their footsteps as they returned to the vampire coven.

'Home…' The word lingered in her mind, opening to reveal the modest three bedroom home on the Rez, with the back porch that opened to a garden blooming with tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables she could not recall, but with soft soil and bugs that the cats loved to chase. She needed to call her grandmother soon.

When they walked into the castle, Eliza felt eyes on her, whispers scraping against the air as she passed through it. 'A human, with Demetri? How odd…' 'She smells of Master Caius, faintly…' 'The human scent haunting the castle, is it her?'

She was an oddity, an outsider, a human. Eliza stared straight ahead, focusing on the feeling of calm that overwhelmed her the closer she got to wherever Demetri lead her. The feeling of unease that she seemed unable to shake after her conversation with her sister had almost completely ebbed when the man opened the door for her, revealing all three kings upon their individual thrones.

They each rose immediately, flitting to her side, touching her in some way, her cheek, her arm, her waist, making sure she was safe and unharmed. When Aro searched her thoughts, he frowned, turning to glare at Demitri. "You let him touch her?" His words were a hiss of rage and though he had no context, Caius was ready to fly into a rage.

His hands cupped her face, searching her eyes for a sign of distress, "Who touched what is mine?" There was a promise of death and vengeance in his expression, blood lust as well.

"Anton." Demitri informed easily, "He was unaware of her rank." When Aro held out his hand expectantly, Demitri placed his palm against his master's flesh, watching Eliza's movements. She looked beautiful, staring into the depths of a painting, moved by the beauty. He withheld a laugh at the sound of her voice 'get out of my face.' Oh, his feisty little mate!

"He shall soon know his place." Caius hissed, planning and plotting how best to punish the man. Eliza merely frowned, still rattled by the casual use of violence.

Marcus, who had remained mute up until that moment, raised a hand for silence. He glanced at his brothers, who paused and listened as well. "The Cullens are here!" Aro remarked, quite pleased. Though, he did not recognize two of the six pairs of footsteps. "Perhaps it's time for you to freshen up before the evening meal?" She would be the only one eating, but Aro used the excuse nonetheless.

"I want to at least say hello to Doctor Cullen and his wife." The man had told her many times to call him Carlisle, but it seemed too familiar of her to do so. Caius looked ready to argue, perhaps recognizing the threat as well, but the door swung open before either had the chance.

Felix looked quite pleased with himself, grinning at Demitri before presenting his caravan. "The Olympic coven, my lords. At least, the half residing in the U.K. currently. The others are arriving shortly."

Carlisle and Esme seemed fearful, looking at anyone but Eliza. She did not realize the tension until she moved to shake Carlisle's hand, as she had been raised to be polite, and Caius moved between the two. Peeking from behind his shoulder, Eliza watched three more women enter the throne room. Victorya looked grim, growing pale at the sight of her sister. Behind her, was a brunette with shortly cropped hair and Dominican complexion, hovering closely to a newborn vampire with ash blonde hair, who's eyes used to sparkle the brightest shades of green, but were now cherry red.

Fear and despair were a cocktail in her brain, sending her sputtering backwards. 'Oh god, Sam!' The voice mocked, the face once blurred by fear now coming into focus before her.

"Radimaze…" The words were a sigh on the newborn's lips, so full of hope when Eliza felt only pain.

"Samantha…." Her heart broke all over again, her skin so numb she did not even feel Aro's fingers digging into her wrist harsher than he meant to, bruising her human flesh with his vampiric strength.

Her tears filled the room with the scent of salt.


	10. Chapter ten

The world is centered around understanding, the basic beliefs we pass onto our children: order over chaos, love over hate, life over death. Yet Elizabeth was surrounded by death, her ears pricking at the thought that she could only hear two heartbeats, sharing blood. Her hands twitched, losing their soft russet coloring and blending into a soft blue. Everything was spinning, a tornado of anguish, hate and confusion. Aro kept skin-to-skin contact, not daring to say anything in fear she would go on a rampage, Marcus watching the bond between Eliza and Sam fester with rust, weakening with betrayal.

"I buried you." Samantha winced at Eliza's statement. Rage flooded her, she began to lash out with venom, "I stood at your funeral and I buried you...! I lowered a fucking body into the ground, thinking it was you! I dealt with the whispers of your snotty cousins saying I killed you, your mother cried on my shoulder and your father….!" Eliza huffed, pressing forward despite Aro's subtle attempt to keep her still, he seemed surprised when she released herself from his grasp, but she pushed the thought away. "Your dick of a father shook my hand and told me, 'thank you for loving my daughter, even when I did not.' Can you imagine that? Your hard ass of a dad, openly weeping in front of your casket. Who did I bury, Samantha?" Eliza had a primal desire to shove Sam to the ground, to snarl in her face, yet at the same time, she wanted to hold and cuddle her, to confirm that she's really, really here.

She must have moved too close, been a touch too ferocious, for the other vampire flitted to Sam's side, blocking her partly with her own body. Eliza flinched, her mind flashing back to the feeling of bones and sinew crushed beneath this woman's teeth in a time that never was. "I changed her into a vampire, so do not scold her when you caused her death." There was a hint of an accent in her voice, Spanish, maybe?

"You hunted us down like mice!" Eliza spat, "Mocked me when I called out to her, tried to kill me!" She was shaking, gulping down air like there was not enough in the room.

The woman knit her eyebrows together, pausing for a moment in confusion. Sam pushed past her, catching Eliza's eye, "Lora saved me, Radimaze! I was dying from that car accident, turning me was the only means of survival."

"You do have two sets of memories, don't you?" Carlisle interrupted, his face thoughtful. "Edward had theorized based on your thoughts, but it did not make sense at the time, we had assumed it was your concussion."

"You grabbed the wheel." Lora, as Eliza now knew her to be, snarled. "That car spun itself into a tree." Eliza flinched, causing Aro to intervene.

"Carlisle." He said simply, the other vampire reluctantly moving forward to take his offered hand. The elder watched the memories of the younger:

Carlisle gripped the wheel loosely, frowning at what his adoptive daughter had told him, 'You need to drive into Forks, I don't know why, I just keep seeing visions of you driving through the backroads.' Edward had come along, primarily because he was in Alice's vision as well. As they wound their way around, a sense of deja vu overwhelmed him, but he shook it off.

"Carlisle, do you hear that?" Edward asked suddenly, tilting his head slightly. Carlisle listened as well, but it was the smell that reached him first, smoke and fresh blood. "There's three sets of thoughts, but only two heartbeats." Their expressions grew grim.

Carlisle pulled the car over onto the shoulder, both men exiting the vehicle. Carlisle flitted to the scene of the wreck, the SUV had been splintered in half, partly by the tree it was wrapped around and partly from a vampire's strength, it looked like when Edward used his body to shield Bella years ago. Buckled into the passenger seat was Elizabeth Tempus, Jacob's cousin, her forehead resting against the dashboard, her lips mouthing a name, over and over.

"She's looking for someone, a Samantha?" Edward pondered, holding his breath at the sight of her wounds. He flitted to the other part of the wreckage, Carlisle noting the way a vampire had literally severed the car in half to get to the driver. The men moved to that side, Carlisle grabbing onto Edward's arm to keep him from launching at the two before them.

Lora's teeth were biting into Sam's exposed neck, blood and venom mixing in a sickly sweet scent. Sam whimpered, curling into Lora's frame, exposing a wide wound across her stomach, fragments of the windshield. "Please, help me save her." Lora whimpered, Edward's face softened as he read her thoughts.

"They're mates." Edward whispered, his mind tracing back to Bella the same way Carlisle instinctually thought of Esme. The mate bond was a hard pull, a tug on your soul that did not lessen. Edward crouched down, slowly as to not spook the female vampire before him. "Listen to your instincts, bite where they tell you." Lora moved quickly, pressing her fangs against each of Sam's wrists, petting her hair as pain blossomed in the soon to be former human.

A shrill ringing echoed from Carlisle's pocket, it was Alice. She used a clipped tone, direct and to the point, "Find her license, I need to match her description to a Jane Doe in the area." It was common, when a body needed to be found, to replace the person with a corpse so no one would come looking for them, a method of survival for newborns whose makers had connections.

Edward took control over Sam's transformation, guiding her through the process, promising morphine for Sam if they came with him and Carlisle. The doctor returned to Eliza, checking her over, making sure she was not seriously harmed. A few bruises, an inch long gash across her collar bone, a slight concussion perhaps, a night or two at the hospital and she would be fine. But why had she looked about with such fear, had she seen Lora?

Carlisle spends about an hour keeping her stable, moving about in the dark, thankful the lesser used roads do not have street lights, so the car remains hidden from humans while Edward leads Lora and Sam back to the old Cullen home. Once they are able to replace the body, Carlisle calls the ambulance and rides with them when they arrive, informing them what they expected to hear, that he stumbled across the wreck and kept Eliza stable until they showed up.

As a former doctor of the hospital, they allow him to stay at her side until her family arrives. Edward lurking outside, listening to her thoughts, confirming the theory. Eliza's eyes flutter open, fear and panic flashing. Her fingers claw at her neck, her entire body sagging in relief when she did not find a wound.

"Eliza, Eliza, it's okay…" He hushes, attempting to soothe her. Her eyes search the room for a person who is not there, she begins to cry.

"Sam's dead, isn't she?" There is little doubt in her voice, he simply nods as she breaks down further. Just outside the door, Carlisle picks up a raised voice.

"How dare you! I know you had something to do with this, you fucking Cold Ones!" Bayak shrieks, shoving Edward out of the way, though he allows himself to be moved as she opens the door. "Get. Out." She ignores him after that, wrapping her arms around her daughter. Eliza weeps into her mother's shoulder.

Aro plucked himself from the memory, wrestling with the laws he had created and the anguish of his mate. Logic stated that Eliza had to think Sam was dead, lest she be turned or killed as well, but the plethora of emotions that crossed her face upon seeing Sam made him want to kill the woman himself, allowing her previous grief to remain valid. "Elizabeth, what happened?" Aro questioned, frowning at all he had seen.

Eliza shivered, she was so cold suddenly. "I can't do this right now…" She moved to walk away, to run even, but with lightning speed Sam reached to grab Eliza's arm. Everything slowed down, even her heartbeat, it seemed to simply forget to move. All three of her mates reached forward to stop Sam from touching her, they were like snails with their pace. Lip curled into a sneer, Eliza shoved her hands forward, straight towards Samantha's chest, the blonde went flying backwards.

The room was ice cold, the vampire slammed against a wall, buckling it slightly, as Eliza stumbled back. Aro caught her, watching her memory of what had happened, the swirl of her thoughts, 'Well, that's new...' His laughter was the last thing she heard clearly as she fell into his arms, everything seemed too much, the sounds too loud, the lights too bright. She winced, letting him coddle her for a moment as Caius sped forward, reacting to Lora lunging towards Eliza. He pinned her to the ground, snarling in her face.

"Submit." Caius spat, Lora snarling beneath him as she twisted to look where Samantha dusted herself from the rubble. Demitri and Felix both moved closer, ready to protect their king. Caius raised his free hand to halt them, enjoying harming the one who had hurt his mate.

"Shit, Radimaze, I never knew you were that strong, I mean I had to carry the water cases from the car." Sam smiled, the same laid back smile Eliza remembered. If the world were not spinning, she would have punched her in the mouth.

"Don't call me that!" Eliza spat, her dark expression dampened at the look of fear on Tory's face. She had forgotten her younger sister was there. She walked forward, taking slow, sure steps, wrapping her arm around Tory's shoulder, half shielding her from view. "Come on, Tory. I want to go get drunk."

Tory barked out a laugh, throwing a glare back at Sam and Lora before giving the kings a triumphant smirk, as if she had won Eliza back somehow. "As long as it isn't with a bottle of Baileys while watching Love Never Dies for the eightieth time." Both had hooded expressions, as if the liquor would loosen their tongues and allow them to speak freely, as only sisters could.

"You know, I wondered where that shit went, I thought mom might have used it when we ran out of creamer last." Eliza joked, pausing when she and Tory were at the door. She realized then that all eyes were flitting between her and the kings, guilt flooded her. Eliza walked back, leaving her sister clutching the door handle and moved to Marcus first, kissing him firmly on the mouth before turning to Aro and repeating the action. By the time she had stepped past them to do the same to Caius, he had let go of Lora, who in turn scrambled to her own mate to check on her well being. The blonde king was not content with a simple peck as his brother's had received, pulling her flush against his body and smashing his lips against hers, his fingers threading in her hair to hold her in place while he ravished her until she was forced to pull away to breathe.

"You sleep in my bed tonight." Caius informed her, as if it had already been decided. Did he win a bet, draw the lucky straw? She pondered how the three brothers worked diplomatically amongst themselves, and how she would be involved.

"Elizabeth…" Sam called out weakly, unsure after such a display. Eliza's heart hardened, she flared her nostrils and huffed in response to her name.

"As far as I am concerned, I buried my fiancé three weeks ago." Her words were as cold as she felt. Tory's hand was warm on her skin, the younger sister had fished out the salmon totem and pressed it into her palm, a silent act of comfort that warmed her whole body with the white wood.


	11. Chapter 11

"Once upon another time, I knew how our story would end

And maybe I was wrong, but now the moment's gone

Were it still that other time, I'd make time itself somehow bend

But now I'm not that strong, and time keeps moving on"

-"Once Upon Another Time," _Love Never Dies_

The door closed with a soft thud after Marcus waved a hand at Demitri, silently dismissing him to follow the sisters. Caius had Lora pinned to the wall with one hand, Sam dangling from her feet with his other fist. Marcus's eyes flickered as he used his gift, seeing the mating bond between the two females, the strained love between Sam and Eliza, as well as the resentment festering in all three of them.

"A human just pushed a vampire across the room." Carlisle spoke first, as if he had spent the past few moments attempting to wrap his mind around that fact. "A human with two sets of memories for the same period of time, who just embraced _all three_ kings." Esme mirrored his dumbfounded expression, nodding slowly in confirmation of his statements.

"A trinity bond." Marcus informed, though Carlisle was the only one to fully grasp that connotation.

"There has only been one trinity bond in history, a rumored one at that. Tracing back to our creation." Carlisle replied with confusion, eyebrows knitting together as he thought back to what little he knew of the history of vampires. Had Alice seen this in her vision, was that why she was so keen on having Carlisle and Edward discover the newly mated pair? They had no plans on adding to their coven, and both women struggled with only drinking from animals. They had barely begun adjusting to the new diet when the summons came to come to Volterra, no one wanting to risk a newborn in a crowded airport on animal blood. The Denali's would have taken them in if they proved able to change their diets, an occurrence that seemed unlikely now.

Aro glided over to Marcus, who nodded at Caius. "Pinning them in place will do nothing brother, they no better than to try and leave." Caius snarled in each of their faces before dropping them like the trash he perceived them to be.

"You live only because death alters perceptions." He warned, like an animal denied a hunt. Caius could not kill them, no matter how much he wished to tear them apart and feed them to the flames. If both were to perish, their relationship with Eliza would be back to square one, their little mate would be mourning the death of a false love.

"We thank you for your mercy, my king." Everyone was surprised when Esme spoke up at last, her big eyes doe like as she simpered. Did she truly have such a bleeding heart? Carlisle embraced his mate, shielding her slightly from their view.

"A guard shall escort you to your rooms." Aro dismissed plainly, yet when Samantha went to exit he stopped her, "Not you. My brothers and I would like a _word_ with you." Lora moved to stay with her mate, but it was Esme who pried her away, wrapping her arm around the younger woman and pinning her with a pleading look.

"You think I'm a monster, that Lora is a monster." Sam challenged, rubbing her palm into the back of her neck, as if it were sore. "They say there's three versions of the truth: what you think happened, what they think happened, and what actually happened. Would you like to see my side of things?" She held out her arm, having been warned of Aro's ability beforehand.

He took her offered hand with a challenge, pulling her memory to the forefront of his mind.

Sam drove down the winding roads, it was her favorite way to go to La Push from Seattle, a quiet, dark, winding road where she could just relax and drive. Her right hand reached down to place her fingers across Eliza's thigh, she had been staring off at the road for a long while.

"Penny for your thoughts, Radimaze?" She asked with a playful lilt, breaking the silence. But instead of smiling, perhaps saying something cheeky like Sam expected, Eliza jumped out of her skin. Her eyes were wild, searching around them, bright with paranoia.

"Stop the car, Samantha!" Her voice was shaking, so Sam lessened her pressure on the gas pedal, spooked by what she saw.

"Elizabeth, what's wrong?" She slowed the car further, reaching her hand from the other woman's leg to cup Eliza's cheek. Sam gawked for a moment, doubting her own sight. Her Elizabeth had eyes of a deep brown, like the bark of the trees outside the theater where they met, but the woman before hers eyes were _blue_ , like ice freezing over a body of water. It was like looking at a stranger, a stranger who jerked the wheel.

The car went flying, wrapping around a tree by the nose of the vehicle. The windshield shattered, a large shard embedding in her body. Pain bloomed in her chest, flowing through her limbs, weighing her down in agony. Sam was sure she was going to die when the lurching sound echoed. Lora appeared, ripping the car apart with her vampiric strength, making a straight shot towards Elizabeth, muttering mocking words that she cannot discern, before Sam lets out a whimper, stopping the vampire in her tracks. The woman is on Sam before she can even gasp, teeth tearing into her throat, filling her with venom.

Aro withdraws from the memory, curling his lip. Eliza had no memory of eye color changing, but how could she have known? It was not like she had a mirror in front of her at the time. Sam's point-of-view was an adjustment, a twist in what he perceived to have have happened. Had Eliza gone back in time, or had the whole thing been a delusion of her mind? The thoughts were not choppy like those who were not sane, if anything they had the feel of strong hindsight, of deja vu.

"Do not go near Elizabeth, let her approach you." Aro commanded, Caius sneered from his spot to the left of Aro, a silent warning.

"I love Elizabeth, I always have, but what I have with Lora…" Sam trailed off, searching for the right words. "It's like my soul is aware of Lora, when only my heart was aware of Eliza." She crossed her arms, resigned to the fact that her love for Eliza now felt incomplete next to Lora, a fact that Elizabeth would soon realize about her own bonds as well no doubt. "If she chooses you, I won't deny her of the happiness of a mate bond. But if she doesn't, then I'll stand by her side in that choice."

The words were hollow, echoing through the room. They all knew the pull of the mate bond, the all encompassing desire to make your dear heart happy, no matter the cost. It altered a vampire's very being, bleeding into the human construct of love. Eliza had to feel it, had to _know_ what she meant to them by feeling alone, she had such a bleeding heart.

Samantha moved to exit, but paused by the door, turning back to make eye contact with Aro. "If Liza is drinking, then I suggest having breakfast food ready. She likes to cook, and I'm sure Jacob will be here by the same she wakes, that boy eats like a wild dog, he's made comments on missing home cooking." Sam's smile was wistful, no teeth, only a curl of her lips. If vampires could cry, Aro wondered if she would have shed tears over the loss of Elizabeth.

Alone in the throne room, the three brothers faced one another in a half circle. "We should summon Corin and Athenodora, perhaps she will know something of this." Athenodora had been Marcus's lover during his early years of life. By the time he helped to take the vampire world in the Volturi name, he had grown bored of her, but she remained stubbornly by his side. She was old, he could feel it in her, see it in her eyes, the ancientness of her soul. Corin had been posted at the woman's side, to keep loneliness at bay, to fill her with contentment.

But it had been nearly a century since the unofficial queen had left her tower, her haven of safety. So the three kings flitted to the tallest tower in the castle, up flights of stairs to a poshly decorated suite, though the decor was a few years out of date.

"I had been waiting for you to summon me." Dora stood on a windowsill, a story off the ground, as if she had entered the room from above. "I could smell her all the way from my tower, your _mate."_ Her singular use of the word had the brothers frowning.

"You know then?" Caius asked, frowning. The two had danced around each other for centuries, having years of seeing each other often, and years of ignoring each other completely. He had threatened her with banishment before, just to see her smile and tell him to _try_ and get rid of her. She was older, stronger, the only one alive who was able to bring Caius down in a fight, simply because she had trained him.

"Of the trinity bond? Of course." Athenodora smiled knowingly, quite pleased with the idea. "It's why I've watched over you three all these years." A silent guardian, content to sit in her tower and patiently wait for something that they were not even aware of.

"The broken bond…" Marcus murmured, he had seen it buried beneath her other connections. A broken, pure mate bond, with edges frayed as if it had multiple strings knit together instead of a single strand. He had never dared to ask her about it, even after it was no longer such a fresh wound. In truth it was the bond he compared all mates to, for it was pure, devout, unblemished by greed or jealousy.

"The time has come to talk about bonds, dear brothers." Her eyes were soft, her legs swinging from the window sill as she gazed beyond where anyone could view, into the past. "I once shared a mate with my sisters, Elpida and Zaren. We were of the first vampires, changed by our mate when he felt the pull of the bond. His name was Amare." Even thousands of years after the loss, Marcus flinched when he saw the bond quiver, writhe ever so slightly. Vampires never got over the loss of their mate, Dora being the prime example of this.

"What happened to your sisters?" Aro asked boldly, he was the precocious one, the one ever aware that history had a tendency to repeat itself, and he had no desire to lose his mate or his brothers.

"They wished to die, so I let them return to Amare." Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat as if she were human, "Apologies, it has been many, many years since I have spoken his name aloud." Guilt clouded her face, revealing what her words could not. She had ripped her sisters limb from limb, built the biggest fire anyone had seen, and watched them burn. When vampires met their deaths, a sickly sweet smell filled the air, it stuck to her clothes, her hair. When the kings fulfilled their duty, she thought back to her sisters, the cruelty of justice.

"And your mate?" Caius piped up then, lips curled back into a sneer. He had tried to speak of mating bonds with her before, but Dora had refused, stating that the time would come when all would be revealed.

"Killed by Time, froze him from the inside out." Her brittle words left the room with a chill in the air. "Our bodies are destroyed by fire, but ice can kill the soul." Dora did not look about, she stared ahead, out the window to the groves beyond. She lifted a dainty hand, as if she were about to be escorted down from a carriage, but it was for Aro to take.

Inside her mind, Aro was captivated by the image of her mate, the picture of vampire beauty, feral and untamed, wild and passionate. His hair was to his shoulders, a thick, deep chocolate braid that surrounded a strong chin, high cheekbones and a slim nose, skin a light shade of caramel. But the memory twisted, the man giving an animalistic smile as his eyes morphed from cherry red to glacier blue, it was as if a different soul had come to inhabit the form.

When Dora removed her hand from his, Aro said the first thought to come to him aloud, "Amare...looks like Elizabeth."

A/N: thanks to the guest who noticed I posted the 11h chapter of APoIaF instead of DoD. I originally wasn't going to include Athenodora, so let me know what you think of her thus far.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Omg, guys, it's spring break! (Whoop, whoop) I still have work and a bunch of school work to catch up on, but I thought it would be cool to do an ask-the-author interlude. Where y'all leave a review with questions about whatever: the process of writing this story, character motivation, that sort of thing. You guys can go as deep as you'd like, from where I got the inspiration to write this story from to why did Eliza not know about the wolves before she found out about vampires.

Eliza walked, her fingers intertwined with her sister's, as if touching her alone would protect her from everything around them. She was not sure if she needed to laugh, or cry, or both. Either way, Eliza had made sure to remember the path they came from this time, retracing her steps back into the city, the night buzzing with excitement. It struck her then that it was Saturday night, people out celebrating one event or another, perhaps just the fact that they were alive.

Tory tried to speak to her, but she did not respond. Eliza simply let the sound of her own footsteps lead her forward, towards a little hole in the wall bar a few minutes walk from the castle, cast in it's shadow. The man tending bar spoken little, broken English, so she did her best to order something sweet and strong in Italian, leading to a bottle of cherry wine being placed before her. Eliza fished a bill from her wallet, but the man waved her money away, glancing behind her. Demetri had sat by the corner, a perfect view of the exits and entrances, he simply raised a palm, twiddling his fingers at her. Eliza frowned, pressing the money onto the bar, replacing where the bottle of wine had rested, insisting. She refused to take the currency back, smiling softly at the elder bar keep.

Eliza sat down next to Demetri, while Tory put as much distance between herself and him as she could, placing two wine glasses on the beat up table. Eliza poured heavily, swirling the pinkish red liquid in her glass before raising it to a toast. "To saying 'fuck this shit." The wine was gone in two long pulls, Tory sips hers and smiles.

"Fuck this shit." Tory repeats, pointing her glass at Demetri. "So are you going to be my sister's shadow now?"

"She's upset. You think they would let her wander the city alone while she is level headed?" Demetri shoots back, crossing his legs at the ankles. He's relaxed, as if he had been there before, in that same seat. He shakes his head as Eliza ignores them both, refilling her glass. Though in the back of her mind, she recalls Demetri appearing at the moment she needed him and he had just confirmed what she had wondered: he followed her.

"I know it's beer before liquor, get drunk quicker, but what about wine? Like, if I drink this and then enough whiskey to get a boar drunk, will I puke?" Eliza muses, shooting back the wine. Her mother had warned her about drinking away her problems, that a band aide doesn't fix a bullet wound, but she could try, she had been trying since Sam's 'death'.

"Liza, if you drink that bottle of wine by yourself with no food, you'll throw up. Period." Tory deadpanned, frisking the bottle from her elder sister and refilling her cup before placing it outside of Eliza's reach.

Demitri, as if it were his cue, rises and speaks perfect Italian to the barkeep, who while nervous, points towards a little cafe across the road. Demetri speaks again and a bottle of whiskey is passed across the bar. He nods, thanking the man before returning to his seat. "So you're getting drunk?" The vampire asks as if the answer is obvious, which it is, as Eliza's face is flushed and her lips are becoming looser.

"So...are you Russian, or is Demetri just a name your mom liked?" The question had been itching at the back of Eliza's mind, though it made Tory burst into a fit of giggles. Eliza grinned, taking the bottle from Demetri and filling Tory's glass before Tory takes it from her. Victorya refills her sister's glass, despite just telling her she needed to slow down on her drinking, they share a look and laugh.

"My father was Russian." He acknowledges, nodding slightly. It's like he has to remember to move, to fidget. "Did your mother purposely name you both after queens?"

For the first time, Tory grins, "My grandmother's name on my dad's side was Victorya, same spelling. Lizzie just got lucky."

"Don't call me that." Eliza sniffed, of all the abbreviations of her name, she hated that one. "My mom is a history buff, she liked royals. Our brother, Louis, was named after the string of French Kings."

"We should call him." Tory mused, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. She twirls the strand around her finger, thinking over everything. "Louis is the rational sibling, after all. Our beloved superego." The sisters laughed, he hated when they called him that.

"I bet he'll bitch about time it is in Washington." Eliza replied. Demitri smirked, noting that his queen cursed more when she had been drinking.

"Nah, he'll complain that we're drunk." Tory shot back, draining her glass before her sister could argue with her. "I say we finish the bottle and then call him."

Demitri sits deathly still, letting the two interact, cementing their mental imprints into his brain, just in case his kings ever asked him to track either of the two women. The two giggle and banter, sharp tongues clashing and dancing. They move with similar mannerisms as the alcohol takes effect. Eliza's laughter turns to giggles, light and airy, Tory leans against her sister's shoulder, sharing in the moment.

Eliza glanced about, her eyes darkening as the haze of kinship recedes, the truth hanging over her. She walks to the bar keep on wobbling legs and pantomimes her way into a handful of shot glasses. Returning with them in her hands, she places them in a long row before her, filling them two-thirds of the way with the bottle of whiskey Demetri had taken. "It just occurred to me, Tor, we've had a hell of a two weeks. Sam died." Eliza ends the sentence sarcastically, taking a shot, "I find out I'm supposed to be with three dudes for eternity." She takes another shot, "Three really, really hot dudes, who are like, thousands of years old." Shot. "But then Sam's alive, like, surprise mother fucker!" Shot. "So now, I have three…" Eliza pauses, making sure to whisper, though it is louder than she thinks, "fucking vampires, who act like I'm the Christine to their Phantom, the Benson to their Stabler, the Goldie Hawn to their Kurt Russell, the, the…" For a moment she wants to cry, so she downs another shot so the burn will move to her throat and she can control it. Her fingers move towards the final shot, but Demetri stops her, his hand hovering over her, not daring to touch her skin, but his eyes are soft.

Tory envelops her in a hug before she can think, squeezing her tightly in her grasp. Boneless, she sags against her younger sibling. "I love you, Eliza." Tory's voice is sure, certain and iron clad. No matter what the word thought, she would make sure Eliza was happy, she decided that right there and then.

"I love you too, Tor." Eliza replies through the curtain of her sister's hair. She breathes deeply, as if remembering the smell of Tory's shampoo would bring her comfort one day. She ponders that vampires have perfect memories, it makes her wonder if any of the kings bothered to cement her to memory, a purposeful thing despite the lack of need. Eliza smiles as a strand of ebony tickles her nose, Tory kept her hair at shoulder length, thick and wavy, genuine and untamed. She tells herself she will never forget the way Tory looked, the way her little sister always tried to act like the hero instead of the younger sibling, her stiff upper lip and her fierce expression.

When they part, Eliza laughs in an attempt to salvage the night, leaning over and hugging Demetri as well, who simply stiffens and remains immobile despite Eliza's arms around him. "You're pretty chill too, Demi." His eyes widen in surprise and she laughs before leaning back in her chair and thinking aloud, "I'm hungry." She searches her memory, realizing she had just downed a large volume of alcohol on an empty stomach. When had she last ate? That awful coffee, a nibble of toast that her sister insisted she eat?

"Come on girls, dinner is on me." Demetri informs, offering each of them a hand to stand up with, but only Eliza takes him up on the offer. When she sways a bit, he wraps an arm around her waist, careful to place it in a modest spot. He has no desire to be punished for inappropriate touching, nor does he wish to be punished for allowing the queen to come to harm's way.

They walk out the door and head south, in the direction the bar keep had directed Demetri before. It's not until Eliza is ripping a loaf of bread in half after having received it with their food that she realizes Victorya has the bottle of Whiskey next to her on the seat. She laughs drunkenly as Demetri chides her to eat more of the bread.

Tory teases that they can drink after they eat, so both dig in as Demetri watches. Eliza finds it strange that vampires don't eat human food in general, having no need nor taste for it. She holds her tongue on the matter and finishes her food, a pasta dish that had the best sauce she had ever tasted.

When they loop back out into the streets, Eliza steals a swig from the bottle of whiskey and then frisks her phone from her pocket. Louis answers on the second ring, a disgruntled, "Hello?" Echoing over the phone.

"Loooooo-eeeeeyyyy" The sisters slur in unison before breaking into giggles. Louis sighs, but there's a smile on the other end of the line.

"You're drunk and it's six am over here, so I take it you both are having fun?" Louis grins through the phone, there's a clatter on his end, like he's pouring a cup of coffee.

"Sooo much fun." Tory replies, "Liza even met a couple guys!" Eliza turns red, she snatches the phone from her sister and glares at her hotly.

"Tory thinks I'm a flirt just because I'm polite." Demetri raises an eyebrow at her words, listening in carefully. Eliza huffs into the receiver, "She wouldn't know flirting from manners, because she doesn't do well with either."

"Either way, Eliza, you sound brighter than I've heard in a few weeks. Italy sounds like it's been good to you." Louis replies. A voice calls out in the background, saying his name, he twists the phone from his mouth, "Yeah Dad, I'll be right there."

"I won't keep you, Lou. Have fun at work." Tor breaks in, laughing as Eliza passes her the bottle, "We'll have to come visit Eliza, if she decides to stay." There's a weight in her voice, she still hasn't decided what to do. She wants Eliza to be happy, but Tory cannot frame her sister's happiness without their family. Could she give up Seth for Eliza and Louis? Her heart broke at the thought, a piece of her whispering that she would, so what would keep Eliza from three perfect mates instead of just one? Tor takes a long pull from the bottle, letting Eliza finish the phone call with their brother.

"Yeah, Lou, I miss you too. I promised Tor I would come home for Christmas...haha, of course, Nana would never forgive me if I didn't help her make cookies for Santa." They share a laugh, both Tory and Demetri noting the same airy laughter coming from both ends of the line.

"Nana insisted Eliza keep up the whole 'Santa is real' thing because she was the eldest, but once all the grandkids got older, it became a running joke that our grandma had a thing for Father Christmas, that's why she still makes cookies every year." Tory whispered to Demetri as Eliza put her phone back in her pocket. Demetri looks at her with suspicion, was he aware of her intent? The idea was a long shot, but perhaps the close knit family Eliza was a part of would convince her to stay with them, not allow her to be wooed by immortals.

"So we both win." Eliza teases, her fist connecting with Tory's arm playfully. "Louis commented on both our sobriety and the time." People pass them in the street, some stumbling and others laughing, the city is so alive. Eliza is slowly falling in love with Italy, with the feel of it.

The trio spend the evening laughing, joking and talking. Tory seemed to almost trust Demetri by the end of it, allowing him to help each of them walk when leaning upon one another almost leads to a tumble. When Demetri is finally able to escort them back into the castle, he and his drunken companions are greeted by the three kings and the Cullen Coven in it's completion. Jacob bursts into a great, big laugh at the sight of them. He takes Tory, picking her up as she laughs.

"Promise you won't tell Seth, kay?" She slurs into Jacob's shoulder as the world spins around her. "I'm ready for bed, Lizzie goes too hard. I blame that arts college she went to!"

Elizabeth leans against Demetri, putting most of her weight on him, though he seemed nonchalant about the fact. "When someone starts singing 'Whiskey Girl', you drink whiskey, duhhhh." They had run into other Americans, newly weds on their honeymoon from California, which turned into a battle of drinking songs. No one was impressed when Eliza starting singing, "Raise a glass to freedom…" then called the group uncultured swine when they did not recognize the tune from Hamilton.

"Even drunk, her thoughts are so loud." Edward sniffs, crossing his arms as Eliza glares at him. 'Fuuuuck you.' He glares at her in return, confirming that he was speaking about her. The vampire must be several years older than her, Eliza assumes, but to her he looks like an angst-filled teen, upset about her lack of propriety.

The three kings move towards her, flanking around her in a protective half circle as the Cullens watch, mystified that the kings of vampires would protect a human so fiercely. "Woah." Emmett whispers, mainly to his own mate, who shares his expression.

Eliza reaches out her hands like a child, remembering what Caius had told her, she curled up against his chest, resting her forehead against his unbeating heart. "I'm sleeping with you tonight, right?" Her words slur more than she realizes they would, causing her to blush.

"Freshman year at Uni they called her 'Lightweight Lizzie,' girl could smoke weed like a chimney, but put some alcohol in her and.." Sam smiles like it's a funny story, but Eliza turns murderous upon hearing her voice, but surprisingly it is Tory who lashes out.

"Yeah, well, my sister was never much of a drinker until the woman she was supposed to marry faked her death to get with some skank!" Jacob spins Tory away from the rest of the group, he is much stronger but she squirms like an unruly toddler. Sam's face is hard as she clutches her mate's hand, keeping her where she is.

"What a lovely welcome party…" Jacob huffs as Tory finally stills in his arms, mostly because the room has begun to spin in her eyes. He glances around at the tension in the room, noticing how Renesmee is partially blocked by Bella from Eliza's view, as if she were a threat to her daughter. He frowns before continuing to speak, "I'm going to put Tor to bed, I'll talk to you over a strong cup of coffee for your hangover, okay Liz?" Jake has a lot to think about, specifically at all he had seen in the past few minutes alone. He was expecting to walk into a war zone, not a cat fight. He takes the younger girl towards the room that had been set aside for her, exiting with a grin thrown at his imprint.

Through the alcohol induced haze, Eliza smiles brightly. Jake and Tory were the same age and though they were thick as thieves, and though they were not as close, Eliza still loved her cousin and kept in touch with him. "Sounds good to me." Jake exits quietly, Tory half asleep, exhausted from the day and the fight she had put up moments before. There's something about being out in the open with everything, the weight of Eliza's guilt lifting to be replaced by anger. It was an adjustment that sent her reeling, the pull of the mate bond promising a relief that under the influence of alcohol seemed extra appealing. She inhales deeply into Caius's cloak, he smells like freshly burnt wood and Eliza relaxes into his arms, though it takes her slightly off guard when he scoops her into his arms.

"We will continue this conversation later." There is a threat and a promise in his words as he begins to carry his mate out of the room.

"That girl is walking Fuku." Lora whispers, a frown pulling at her lips, but Eliza smiles. So Lora was Dominican, pieces fell into place.

Eliza places a finger against her cheek, giggling before whispering to Caius—though all vampires can hear her with their damn super hearing—"But I have a face." Aro laughs, a giggle bursting from her that makes Eliza happier than she had been in a nice, long while. He understood her reference, though Caius did not.

"I told you to read Junot Diaz, brother." Marcus chides, pleased that their mate is well read. He clasps his hands together before flitting to the door to open it for Caius as he carries their mate outside, her head resting against Caius's chest, eyes drooping. "Sleep well, Piccola."

The echo of the heavy door breaks the silence in the room, Aro smiles ferally before gliding to his throne. "Well, let us discuss."


	13. 13

A/N: You might have noticed I upped the rating for this fic to M, that's because of this chapter and beyond. I've never really written a sex scene or anything like that before, so I'm branching out a bit, experimenting. Things get a little hot and heavy in this chapter, you've been warned.

When Eliza wakes up, her eyes are still heavily lidded, her limbs weighed down from sleep. Her arms and legs are wrapped around something...no someone. It reminds her of how she would curl up with a pillow when she slept alone, in need of comfort in any form, even just having her own body heat radiated back to her. But the texture wasn't the same, her fingertips traced the fabric, a starched cotton that held a crisp smell, like firewood.

She startles as the thought registers, moves to scramble away but he holds her in place. Eliza can hear the smirk in Caius's voice as he purrs, "Good morning, Elizabeth." She tilts her head forward, realizing that the two are sprawled in bed together, her body curled around him. Was she cuddling with a vampire? It sounded like the fantasy of a thirteen-year-old, yet there she was. Eliza smiled sheepishly, ducking her head so she doesn't have to meet his eyes, blushing when she realizes that she is in her traditional sleepwear: a simple t-shirt and the cotton underwear she had worn that day. She assumed if she checked the floor she would see her jeans, boots and socks on the floor, right where she kicked them off.

Eliza was a creature of habit, she hated having things on her feet when she slept, not to mention she had her friends would joke 'home is where pants aren't'. She searches her memory, though it seems to fade as the previous nights hours continued. She had drank a touch too much last night, a thought confirmed by the raging headache slowly overwhelming her conscious. "Did we….?" Eliza is unsure how to even ask, though Caius does not even react, he simply sits up in the bed, moving her to a seated position as well, her back resting against his chest. His chin is tickled by the hair on the crown on her head, though both parties are resting quite comfortably.

"Did I help you into bed because you were drunk? Yes. Did you insist on being held? Yes." Caius informs as though it were obvious, though it makes Eliza blush scarlet. "Apparently you also got Demetri to buy you cigarettes because otherwise you would have cried and when my brothers or I asked you about it, you would have said Demetri made you cry." They both chuckle then, Caius in amusement and Eliza in mortification, a nervous giggle. She was brash when she drank or smoked, she knew that, but to order Demetri around? The thought was horrifying.

Yet what haunted her most was her dream, her nights were plagued with visions as of late, strange, abstract things. But last night was different, it felt so real it rattled in her bones. Perhaps because it was a construct of a memory.

A subtle growl filled the room, causing Eliza to curl her legs slightly, it was her stomach, she wanted to die right then and there. Caius brushed his lips across her hairline, hiding his amusement beneath the stands of umber brown. There was a sense of wholeness that reminded her of when she would attend bonfires growing up, the feeling of togetherness, of oneness, reflected in the flames reproduced simply through Caius's fingers splayed boldly across her hip, in the dip between her t-shirt and underwear.

"Rumor has it you enjoy cooking." Caius informed her, one hand tracing her flesh lazily while the other began to play with her hair, lifting the strands into the light, watching them reflect the glow.

"Who told you that?" The pleased tone of her voice reflects that it is true, she was the eldest child with two working parents, cooking was somewhat expected of her. But she had grown to enjoy it, partly because she could make whatever she wanted with the knowledge that her sibling's contribution would be to wash the dishes.

"Doesn't matter." Caius dismisses, moving to sit up and bringing her with him, so that her legs are sprawled across his lap and their faces are but inches apart. "Do you know what you said to me before bed last night?"

There's a fierceness in his grin that both terrifies and excites her, the later weighing more heavily. She shakes her head no as he leans in closer, his breath tickling her lips, causing her to bite her bottom one slightly. "Kiss me when I'm sober." Caius repeats, crashing his mouth onto hers, a clash of teeth and tongue that makes the world spin. Eliza moves to adjust to the new development, her mind conjuring an instinctual urge that manifests in her fingers in his hair, clutching at the scalp and bringing his body closer to hers, chest to chest. It's a strange sort of dance, one moving to outwit the other. When Eliza tugs on his hair, he growls in pleasure and matches her move with one of his own, his hand skating down her back, resting firmly on the thin cotton that separates his hand from her bare ass.

Caius moves from her swollen lips to kiss her jaw harshly, moving down the arch of her neck and pausing at her pulse point, his tongue darting out across it before he stops himself, sitting back to simply watch his mate pant before him: hair a mess and eyes wild, grinning despite herself. There's a flash of fear when she realizes his eyes are black as pitch, but it recedes as her breathing evens out and she mumbles out simply, "Well...damn…" It was not how she expected the morning to turn out, though her mind recalled vaguely asking him to do what he had just done last night, only for him to say she was too drunk to consent. Her heart warms with the context, the respect of her sense of self, the fact that he was a gentleman.

Her mate simply chuckles before repositioning her on the bed, as if he were a little girl ensuring her doll were taken care of, allowing her to sit comfortably while he flits with vampiric speed to the large wardrobe. She glances about, quickly realizing that they are in his room, but the bed was not there before. "When did you get a bed in here?" It's an impressive piece of furniture, mahogany head and footboard with high thread-count sheets. It blends with the room as if it had always been there.

"I ordered it to be brought up after you left." He replies simply, plucking through articles of clothing. He surprises her with a simple sundress, a cream color of knee length. "As well as other female and human necessities." She giggles at the thought of him fretting over her, it's cute, though she would never admit it.

Eliza notices when the fabric is in her hand that it smells of him faintly, as if he had purposely surrounded it with his own clothing so the scent would rub off. "But vampires don't sleep." She speaks as if it were obvious and considering she had yet to encounter a coffin, it seemed to be plausible.

"Who says I had it brought up for sleeping?" There is a promise in his words, as if what they had just done in that very bed were just a taste. Blushing scarlet, she slips into the bathroom, changing quickly before noticing that the bathroom counter has two sinks, both sides now populated when there was only one side filled before. Every item from her luggage had been reproduced in fresh packaging, from her toothpaste to her brand of floss. It startled her, the thought that someone had gone through her things. She understood from their point-of-view it was caring, but to her it was just too creepy. Eliza tried to block out the connotations behind the items and simply use them, brush her hair and teeth, put on her makeup. Her hangover hangs over her head, her limbs heavy and her stomach pitching a fit to be fed.

When she exits the bathroom, she blurts out a question that pulled on her mind, "Caius, are you marking me with your scent?" The crisp scent she knows to be his clings to the dress, a claim staked. When he raises an eyebrow at her, she continues, "My parents have this dog, his name is Bear, coolest dog, but he's possessive. Like, if my brother comes home from someone's house that has a dog, Bear flips out, startings whining and groaning before Louis, like you just broke his heart. He acted like Lou was cheating on him by petting other dogs, because he could smell other dogs on him." She ends her story with her hands on her hips as Caius turns sheepish for a moment before morphing into aloof, shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't know what you mean." He grins then, looking her over. "Everyone can see you're mine simply by looking at you." His eyes dip to her lips, causing her fingers to press against them, they were swollen from his kiss. Eliza glares at him and huffs in indignation.

"Will you show me to the kitchen? I'm starving, and humans eat you know." She changes the subject quickly, as if it erased the clear markings he had left on her. What's strange is that she is not embarrassed that anyone knows what had taken place, how it would one day spiral further no doubt, what worried her was what Marcus or Aro would say. She had barely pecked either of them, while Caius had attempted to devour her from the start. He was forward, commanding, and though she would never admit it, completely her secret fantasy when it came to a partner. Eliza was attracted to the strong, brash type, those who were cunning and forward. There were qualities in each of the three brothers that drew them to her, but in terms of instant chemistry, it was Caius who put his brothers to shame. There was passion with Caius were she found comfort in Marcus and mental stimulation in Aro.

Even now, when most would allow her to shy away, he happily put his arm around her waist, leading her out the door and down the hall. Eliza's head beats with every step that echoes across the walls, she regrets having that final round the night before. The kitchen is immaculate, all chrome fixings and granite counters, Eliza just about drools at the smell of coffee percolating next to the stove. Caius hangs by the door, content to simply watch her move. She studies the contents of the cabinets, seeing where the bowls and plates are before finding the mugs. The coffee sloshes in the ceramic, strong and dark, she inhales deeply before moving to the fridge. "Oh thank Christ, actual coffee creamer!" Elizabeth cradles the container to her chest as if it were a gift from above before topping off her drink.

Caius's head lilts slightly towards the ajar door before his lip curls. "I'll leave you to your breakfast." He seems annoyed at having to leave, but he is gone in a flash. Eliza smiles though, happy for a moment alone to collect her thoughts. She stands idle for a long beat, drinking a mug of coffee and gathering herself. When her head no longer feels overflowing with concrete, she begins to search the kitchen, pulling out utensils.

"I see a bad moon rising…" She switched between humming and singing as she moved, gathering eggs, bacon and butter from the fridge, a sack of potatoes from underneath the counter. "I see trouble on the way…" Eliza had just begun to shred the washed potatoes when she just about jumps out of her skin at the sight of her cousin, immobile in the doorway.

"Jesus Christ, Jake!" Eliza curses, the half shredded spud making a dull thud as it falls into the bowl she was cutting it over. "You're a damn shadow."

"And you're sober at last." Jake teased in response, moving to wash his hands in the sink next to her, "Lizzie's hangover breakfast, the best eggs you've ever tasted!" He takes the potato from her and eases her to the side, taking over potato duty.

"Keep your voice down." Eliza grouches, allowing him to shred what would become hash browns while she gets the oil on a low heat for them before starting on scrambling the eggs. "I've missed you, Jacob." They share an easy smile, both reminded of the mornings after sleepovers at their grandmother's home, how she chided them to get along while helping in the kitchen.

"How you holding up?" Jake asks after a beat, stealing glances at her when he thinks she is not looking. His fingertips are pruning from the potatoes as the shredded pile grows larger before him.

"Put those on the stove." Eliza orders, pointing a finger at a deep dish with a thin layer of oil and salt. She sighs, taking the potatoes from him and placing them in the pan lightly lined with oil, biding her time. "Do you remember the first year we all went hunting together?"

"Yeah, you and Tory got into that huge fight just before and-" Jake pauses when he sees the look on Eliza's face, she has no wish to talk about the day she stopped calling Peter 'Dad'. He furthers his words along, "I shot at a buck and missed by a mile, he took off running right at you and you just raised your gun and…" He trails off, his mind recalling the moment, the echo of his shot in the valley, how Eliza had already been aiming at the creature but it was not until it turned her way that she took her shot, the crackle seemed louder than the first bullet, entering the buck's lungs, a clean shot despite the short time to adjust her aim.

Eliza nods in confirmation, though she doesn't look at him. She focuses on cooking, making sure the bacon doesn't burn. "I keep having this dream about it, it's weird. I'm standing by this stream when I hear the shot, but you aren't there anymore, it's just me and this deer coming right at me and I'm rooted to the spot. And suddenly, it's not the deer coming at me at all, it's this...man, just walking." A splotch of grease pops up, she hisses in pain when it touches her hand. "But he doesn't look like a man, his hair is frozen on the end, like he went in the snow with it still wet. And he's just looking at me with this bright smile and he opens his mouth like he's going to say something...my name, I don't know...but this raven comes out of nowhere, scares the shit out of me, and instead of a deer, I shoot the raven instead. The recoil is so much stronger than in reality, and I go falling back and the man goes to grab my hand, but this salmon leaps out of the water as I fall in and tries to attack him. And the last thing I remember is just...sinking into the water with this white fish circling above me…"

Jake's lips are a thin, white line as he chews over what she has said. Eliza keeps moving, as if afraid to be still, stirring the pans on the stove before draining her mug and moving to refill it. "I know Nana is better at dreams than me, but have you considered it has something to do with...what's been happening lately?" He waves his hand generally, as if putting her life under an umbrella. "Or maybe Sam being alive after you thought she was dead is dreading up other stuff?"

She laughs dryly, fixing herself another cup of coffee before turning the flame on low underneath the eggs. "My shrink would say it's my way of handling life, looking through the lense of a situation I'm in control of or some bullshit. Who really knows? Nana would probably say it's a message from the ancestors or something."

Jake copies her movements, finding a mug in the cabinet on his second try before filling it to the brim and sipping it black. "Look, Liza, I'm not sure what you want me to tell you, or if you want to hear anything specific at all. It's a lot to take in, vampires, shapeshifters…" He sips from his coffee as an excuse to drift off, though the frown remains, marring Elizabeth's face.

They let the silence simmer as Eliza removes the bacon from the pan, placing the strips over a plate topped with paper towels to avoid excess grease. She sloshes the eggs into the grease filled pan and Jake startles.

"That's how your eggs taste so good!" He laughs as she shakes her head. Using a wooden spoon she turns the food, keeping it from burning. "Bacon grease!"

"It's magic." Eliza japes, joining in on his laughter. Jake's laugh had always been contagious.

The door swings open to reveal a sour faced Victorya, who brightens when she loudly sniffs the air. "Oh my god, Eliza's cooking." Jake pulls a mug down and fills it, draining the last of the pot into the ceramic and handing it to her. She sniffs it before looking over at her sister's and switching them out while Eliza's back was turned. Tory presses a finger to her lips at Jake, who barks out another laugh.

Eliza glances between the mug on the counter and her sister, "My mug was blue, why is this one red?" She pointed at the black coffee and then at Tory, "Thief." There's a smile in her words, Eliza rolls her eyes and gets the creamer out, deciding a full mug is better anyways.

"No toast?" Tory asks, glancing around as the food finishes being cooked. She has already stolen a piece of bacon, nibbling on it. She's pleasantly surprised by the human like quality of the room, fresh, modern food was not a vampire's concern, yet here it was, for Eliza's benefit no doubt.

"Make some." Eliza replied dryly, "I'm already cooking eggs, bacon and hash browns, your favorite. Toast wasn't high on my agenda." Jake busies himself with setting the table before she has a chance to command him to do something, which pleases her.

Tory sighs dramatically, but hunts through the cabinets until she finds a loaf of sourdough that seems to be locally bought, since it smelled heavenly and did not have any slices yet. "Do you know where a cutting board is?" She asks, causing Eliza to point to a piece of wood jutting from the top cabinet. Tory pulled it out, revealing a cutting board she could use with ease.

Eliza moved to put the readied food on the island in the center of the kitchen as Tory toasted the bread. They dished out the food while the bread browned and smiled at one another. "I can't remember the last time we ate together like this." Eliza muses as she begins to eat some egg.

"I can, we went out to dinner for mom's birthday. It was right after everything calmed down." Tory shoots back, causing Eliza to frown. She remembers coming home for spring break to tension in the air, the pack on edge.

"What made everyone so riled up?" She questions, Jake and Tory share a look that makes Eliza wonder just how out of the loop she had been.

"Bella being turned into a vampire. It broke the treaty." Jake finally admits after swallowing a large mouthful of food. He continues to eat, like it's going to protect him from speaking.

"The treaty." Eliza repeats slowly, is she supposed to know what that means?

"The one our great-grandfather signed with the Cullens. No one gets turned and no vampire steps foot on our land." Tory supplied, as if the answer were obvious.

"So how am I just finding out all of this?" She barked, gritting her teeth. Eliza's food was half eaten, her fork jabbing at the food with anger.

"It was on a need to know basis. The wolves and imprints of the wolves." Jake replies, though it is then that Eliza realizes what that means.

"You and Seth…" The dots all come together at once, she had said he had puppy love, but her mother said no, it was young, old love. Eliza hadn't understood what she meant until the moment she laid eyes on her own mates. It was a new feeling, but an ancient one.

"After Seth shifted for the first time, he said the world didn't matter without me in it." Tory confesses, "So when he took Jake's side, and he imprinted on Nessie, it was the right thing to do." She shrugs, unsure of what else to say.

"Does Louis know?" Eliza asked, "Do mom and Peter know?" Tension rises in the air, she wants to scream.

"Aunt Bayak knows because she's on the Council, Uncle Peter knows because...he used to be a shifter." Jake confesses, Eliza contemplates stabbing him with her fork. "He hasn't turned wolf in years, but he did imprint on your mom, he really loves her." He smiles, like it's a comfort to know her mother and stepfather were happy.

"Does Louis know?" Eliza repeats, causing Tory to avoid her eyes. She searches her mind for a clue, remembering how much he seemed to have grown up while she was gone. She had thought it was just nostalgia, that he seemed so much bulkier than before she had left for school. Over summer, he ate like a beast, always ravenous. "Is he…?"

"He turned about two months ago. Sam called me." Jake says after a beat of silence. "It's in his blood, Liza, it's normal."

"My brother turns into a giant dog, and that's normal?" Eliza shouts, chair skidding backwards as she stands in indignation. "Jesus Christ, Jake, nothing about this is normal!" He said it was in his blood, but was it in her's? Her mind conjured the word she had long buried, what Tory had called her the day she left to go hunting. The younger sister was mad, jealous that Eliza was getting more attention from her father than Tory was, so she had played a card she knew would hurt, "He's my dad. Your's is a dead white man, you're just a Hokwat." The word stung, it was a tribal word, the tongue of their ancestors, it meant a non-Indian, a white person. She hated her light skin that day, her non-black eyes and her brown hair. When Peter congratulated her on her shot that day, she had thanked him and called him by his first name. She might as well have shot him in the heart.

"Eliza, calm down." Jake warned, glancing about the room, wondering why it was suddenly so cold.

But Eliza refused, jetting out the room and down the hall. She ran, not even knowing where, though she watched Demetri follow on her heels.

"She's fine, Demetri. I want to talk to her." Athenodora called, Eliza almost running into her in her panic. The vampire watched her with open awe, "Aro was right, you look like the effeminate version of Amare." Her smile was honest, but frighteningly wide.

Eliza, startled like a colt, steps back from the woman. "Who are you?"

"A friend of Fate." She replied, "I've been waiting for you."


	14. Author's Note

Author's Note insert:

Hello my lovely readers! As promised, a Q&A interlude! I just wanted to point out a few things and thank a few people.

First and foremost, to the detailed reviewers Lauramari, xxyangxx206, inredrainboots and guest, thank you so much! Your reviews are what push me to write and I love hearing your feedback and insights.

In regards to what I have planned, I do so in arcs. I call the first arc the "Persephone Plot" just because of how Bayak and Tory are going to/have reacted to the mating bond, and there's two arcs planned, the Persephone Plot and the Time Plot. Without giving too much away on Fate and Time, be thinking not so much what are they, but _who_ are they. :)

I also wanted to shed light on a few fics and works that I got my inspiration from:

"Establishing a Dynasty" is a Harry Potter fic where Hermione is paired with multiple Malfoy men, and the way that the author constructed the polyamorous relationship is what gave me the confidence to write one of my own.

The works of JuliaAugusta here on FF is what made me want to write about the Volturi kings, her stuff is amazing, check her out.

As for books, I allude to or pull from _The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_ by Junot Diaz (Lora's comment on Fuku comes from this), _The Satanic Verses_ by Salman Rushdie (Gibreel's POV helped to form Eliza's experience with twisting time), _The Gaurdians_ by Ana Castillo and probably a bunch more that I can't think of haha.

A few have asked how I plot and write this and other works, and tbh I smoke weed for my mental health, so sometimes I just smoke, drive and think. That's why there's song lyrics in or at the beginning of a chapter, it's what I was listening to when I got the muse for that piece. I write a chapter and then post it, though I do have a doc that just vignettes I've written and need to insert somewhere. Like, the part where Eliza asks who she buried I had written a week before that actual chapter.

I also wanted to give some nods to characters:

Delores 'Lora' Alma: Lora is a mixed bag, y'all hate her now, but wait until you find out her backstory haha. She's a mix of Beli from _TBWLoOW_ and Tiny Tears in _TG,_ I wanted to play with Dominican culture because I loved the fuku and zafa in Diaz's book, which will play out well with the Time arc.

Athenadora: This girl definitely knows what's up with Eliza, which she will reveal part of next chapter. While researching for this fic, I originally wasn't going to include her, but then I found out that her name means "the gift of death" and I had to sink my teeth into her, fleshing out her backstory. Clue/hint: she's one of the oldest vampires in existence.

Alice: I haven't unpacked her too much yet, but I wanted to drop a clue about her: she lost her memories of the past, but can see into the future based on decisions, while Eliza can alter the present by changing her decisions.

Bayak: After Tory, Bayak Black is my favorite character because she's savage. My mom never held anything back and to this day she will put a stranger in their place, so Bayak is a definite nod to my mom. Her backstory will get flushed out when Eliza returns home for Christmas, so it's a ways away but I have it planned and y'all are gonna love her, because she is a mom first and foremost.

Other notes:

The Black Family lives on Mariposa way, which is a nod to the butterfly effect.

Peter is the youngest child and brother to Billy Black, so Eliza and Jake technically are not related, but family is who you choose. On the other side of this, Bayak's mother is Margaret "Maggie" Young-Ulley, who while distant relatives of the Black family, is not the biological grandmother of Billy's children, though she treated them the same as Eliza, Tory and Louis.

Names are important, as Lauramari was clever enough to point out, Bayak means raven, Amare means love, Tempus means time and so on.

Also a heads up, I order chapters with what ff says they are, so since this is labeled by ff as chapter 14, the next actual chapter will be labeled 15 just so I don't mix myself up.

Last thing is a couple pronunciations: Bakak = By-ook and Loius = Lou-ee


	15. Ch 15

There was a moment of sheer panic, where the room seemed to spin before all movements became slow, like life was being played at half pace. Athenodora stared at Elizabeth with fire in her eyes, casting light on the ice in Eliza's soul, catching her off guard. Energy drained from the younger woman as her panic fueled the slowing of time, though it seemed Dora was less engaged in it, moving at a only slightly slowed pace. "Calm yourself, you'll freeze from the inside out, you're half human after all." Dora clucked the words like a mother hen, thought it only spooked Eliza more, half human?

The woman placed her hands on Eliza's shoulders, steadying her, but her skin felt like fire. Eliza jumped back, breaking the spell she had unknowingly cast, as Marcus flit into the room and cradled her in his arms, shushing her even though she had not said anything. "What have you done, Dora?" Marcus accused, shielding his mate from the ancient's view with his own body.

"I said hello," Dora deadpanned, "It's not my fault she was already running scared. Ask Demetri, I dismissed him from following her just a moment ago." She waved her hand in a general direction, as if that was where the tracker was.

"I-I'm fine, Marcus, really." Her voice was shaky, but her soul felt so at ease in his arms. Marcus smelt like freshly cut fields, it reminded her of going horseback riding as a child, inhaling the soothing scent of nature, of undisturbed, authentic beauty. Eliza always enjoyed cuddling, but with any of the three vampires, she simply craved to be in their presence, to touch without ulterior motive, just to feel them there.

Eliza separated herself from his embrace after ghosting her lips across his cheeks, a feather light kiss that made him glow with happiness and her feel so fragile yet empowered. She studied the woman before her, waifish yet graceful, with the palest hair and skin Eliza had ever seen. She searched her mind, wondering why the woman looked so familiar to her.

"If I may ask, how is Maggie fairing?" Dora questioned with a thoughtful tone, but it sent Eliza reeling. Her grandmother was a gifted painter, she loved to do portraits of people, especially historical themes. It was where Bayak's love of history came from, and Eliza's enjoyment of literature and art. There was a portrait Maggie had done in her youth, she called it the image of a spirit dream, though her daughter had chided that it was the product of psychedelic mushrooms and the seventies. It was a large painting of a woman, with skin and hair as pale as the moon, with a crown of fire on her head and a tarot card of the wheel face up in her hand. Athenodora's mouth crumpled at Eliza's reaction to her question, "Oh my...they never told you, did they?"

There's a recurring theme of displacement pounding in Elizabeth's head: how much was she ignorant to? Was she not Quilette enough to know the history of her family? To know how to have visions of a vampire?

Dora walked slowly towards Eliza with raised palms, as if she were a frightened animal. "I see I have much to tell you, did your mother never talk about your father? I had assumed you came here to find answers."

Marcus glared at the woman, the geers in his mind twisting. "What you said before, how you were waiting for a sign to appear, that you've been waiting for someone for years…"

Eliza's heart was pounding in her ears, her hands shaking. Athenodora stared at her, calculating. "There are three natural reactions to danger, to fight, to run or to freeze. So far I've seen you run from your family and freeze everyone around you. Have you tried fighting yet?"

"Fighting?" Eliza huffed, running a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry...whoever the fuck you are...but within forty-eight hours I have found out that my dead fiancé is alive, albeit a vampire, oh, and let's not forget vampires are real along with werewolves or shapeshifters or whatever the fuck you want to call them, and everyone I have ever trusted is involved or knew of this to a degree, but never bothered to tell me. So unless you're going to nod and say 'same,' I don't want to hear whatever you have to say." She would never voice it aloud, but she truly just wanted to curl up with any of her mates—hell, all three of them—and let the feeling of their skin on hers make her feel better.

Dora, though, is unphased, her mouth a thin, white line. "My, you've had your head buried in the sand your entire life, haven't you?" The woman glares at the younger, who cowers behind her mate for a moment before the anger hits.

"Buried in the sand?" Eliza spats, "You mean living in the real world, not assuming myths are real? I mean, come on, which ones are real and which are fake, the Cold Ones? The Raven and the King of Time? I mean…" She huffs, crossing her arms. What is being expected of her is ridiculous, to have purposely believed what had been presented as fantasy her entire life?

"The Raven and the King of Time?" Dora echoes, a pleased mask overtaking her features. Her skin is translucent in the light, glowing like a flame. "I don't believe I've heard that tale before…" Her grin is feral, causing Marcus to frown.

Eliza glares at her, she had no desire to retell stories told to her as a child by her grandmother. She huffs out a breath, curling into Marcus once more. "Can I talk to you?" She murmurs, unsure. Yet when Marcus nods Athenodora disappears like the smoke from an extinguished candle.

Marcus runs his fingers over her arms, her face, studying that she is whole and well. "Are you alright?" He searches her eyes, seeking truth in the dark depths, but she has no words to give. He smells the salt before the first teardrop falls, he catches it with his thumb.

"Demetri made a comment last night, that he had never seen you so alive before, that I had lit something in you that he never seen so brightly." Eliza weighs her words, "Is that what a mate bond is? Fire in your veins?" She shivered, placing her palms on his upper arms, steadying herself, "Or is it ice, slowly freezing you from the inside out?"

"Elizabeth…" Marcus whispers. He holds her, cradling her to his chest as she begins to weep, Eliza feels as though her body was no longer that of a human's, but a river, flowing.

"I don't….I just don't know what to think anymore…" She hiccups, burying her face into his chest like a child. Eliza hates crying in front of others, it makes her feel weak. "And...And I'm supposed to be starting this new job next week. I mean, how am I supposed to get through orientation when all I can think about is my brother turning to a fucking dog!"

Eliza knows she's hysterical, rambling and blubbering, but Marcus makes no move to correct what she deems immature, he simply allows her to cry. Humans are such complicated creatures, complex and ruled by emotions. Where Eliza sees weakness, Marcus observes humanity in its rawest form, he misses the ability to cry and weep.

"Elizabeth, you don't have to work…" He picks his words carefully, wishing his brother were here, Aro was the one with a silver tongue. "At least not for now. There is a lot to adjust to."

"But, but my visa is dependent on the job, and I signed a contract and-" Her breathes are gasps, Eliza had not had a panic attack in years, yet there one was. Marcus cradled her to him, shouting out for someone, though she did not hear whom. Eliza's strangled breathing was cut short by the black haze of Alec's gift flooding her senses, causing all to be stil.

DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~DoD~

Maggie was an astute woman, wise beyond her years even into her seventies. Her hair, though riddled with grey, still held fine, black strands that wound into a braid behind her back. With gloved hands she tended to her garden, the elder did not believe in store bought tomatoes, they just didn't taste as good as ones from her own crop.

Elizabeth slipped off her sandals and stood barefoot in the soil at the edge of the plot, her grandmother's back to her. She tried to cement this moment into her brain, the smell of the fodder and the sight of the sunshine, her grandmother's house was filled with such nostalgia and so many fond memories Eliza was sure this was the closest to heaven she would ever get.

"You're scary when you're quiet, Lizzie. It usually means you're up to something." Maggie did not turn around, but the smile in her voice was so genuine Eliza could picture it clearly. Eliza moved forward, dirt squishing between her toes as she closed the distance. The two women kneeled side by side as Eliza placed her bare hands directly into the soil, the heartbeat of the land, her grandmother called it.

"I'm not sure what all I'm up to these days." Eliza replied with a Cheshire grin. Maggie mirrored her expression with a roll of her eyes, pausing in her gardening to face her grandchild.

"You've upset your mother. What was it Louis said?...Oh yes, 'she be tripping'... I assume that means she's worried?" Eliza barked out a laugh at her grandmother's line of questioning. Maggie smiled, picking up a fist full of soil and squeezing it between her fingers. "This land is our legacy, Elizabeth. I'm sorry it' not meant to be yours as well."

"What do you mean?" Eliza asked, panic creeping in. Clouds rolled in from over head, the temperature dropping as it began to snow.

"Have you dreamed of the man of ice lately?" Maggie pressed, lifting her limbs from the ground and standing next to her granddaughter. Eliza's gaze darkened, confirming her question. "You've been looping again, then?"

"Looping?" She thinks of all the times she has twisted back time, to save Tory, to save her own skin. "How do you know about all that?"

Maggie smiles sadly, her soil covered hands press against Eliza's cheeks, her thumb swipes the dirt across her lips. Eliza can taste the crackle of power on her tongue. "Ask Dora to help you remember your dreams…" Maggie whispers, kissing her granddaughter's forehead, "Like this one."


	16. Chapter 16

Victorya glared at her cousin, who continued to devour his food as if Eliza had not just full on bolted out of the room. "You know, my mom always said not to make Eliza anxious. Those were her exact words, 'Tory, don't make your sister anxious,' as if breathing did that. What fault of it is mine that she's as skittish as a cat in a bathtub?" She crosses her arms and sighs dramatically, noting that Jake is unmoved, scraping the crumbs into a mountain on his plate in order to scoop them into his mouth. He was used to sibling rivalry, having two elder sisters himself. "I mean, one time, she was freaking out because I was being too loud by drawing. Like, how noisy is a pen scratching a piece of paper?"

"It's called sensory overload, you've never heard of it?" Tory looks about ready to stab Edward with her fork when he waltzed into the room, Bella and Renesmee following. The younger woman, though technically a few years old, had the same teenage look to her, an eternal youthful aura. "It happens to newborns all the time, trying to adjust to their heightened senses."

Jake quickly stood from his seat and half prodded Nessie to take his spot as he moved to grab her a small plate of food, Tory thought it was the strangest thing that the girl ate human food and drank animal blood. Nessie ate her steak so rare, Tory thought it might moo at her; hybrids were weird. The girl smiled at Jake, lighting up the room as he placed a plate before her.

Bella sat down on the other end of the table, watching those around her. Tory kept her hands spooning a mug of coffee as Jake looked after his imprint. She sighed into the ceramic, "So do you think Sam is going to lose his shit more than my mom will about all this?"

Jake looked up in surprise, "They don't know?" As if on cue, Tory's phone chirped as a call came in. 'Mama Mia! Here I go again, my, my how could I resist you?' The phone sang, confirming who the caller was, Tory shook her head.

"Speak of the Devil and the Devil will appear." Tory muttered, pulling the device to her ear. "Hi mom!" Her voice was dripping with fake cheer as she answered.

Everyone stilled, straining their ears to pick up the barking voice of Bayak Black, "Victorya Jane! So you're alive, but can't call your mother to tell her that?" Edward grinned at Tory, she glared at him in return.

"I'm sorry, mom, things have been crazy lately. Europe is super pretty…?" Her voice trails off as she grasps at straws, looking for an excuse. "And jetlag is a bitch."

"So jet lag is the reason for the radio silence?" Bayak does not seemed convinced, Tory imagines her standing in the livingroom, hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. "Even Seth has been asking after you! Your own imprint!" Tory bows her head slightly in shame, her face reddening.

"Mom, look I-" Tory is interrupted by the dramatic huff on the other end of the phone, she grits her teeth.

"Victorya." Her name is a warning, laced with dread. "Is your sister alright?" There's worry etched into Bayak's tone, but all Tory feels is anger, a hint of jealousy.

"She's fine, do you want to talk to her? Is that why you called me, because she didn't answer?" Tory accuses, pacing the length of the kitchen with the phone pressed snugly against her ear. She can picture the vein on her mother's forehead pulsating with anger. "Because I would be happy to hunt her down for you and let you scream at her instead!"

"Hunt her down?" The inclination that Tory was the one to lose her sister sent the girl reeling, she bit her tongue, allowing her mom to seethe for a moment. "You don't know where she is, Tory, she's fragile right now."

Tory wanted to laugh, to explain that Eliza was nowhere near as glass-like as she had been in the States, when she was reeling from a sudden death. If anything, the smoldering embers had been relit in the elder sister, she was bright and alive again, though Tory loathed to admit it was a response to the mating bond. "Eliza is just fine, she's a big girl. In fact, I'd say she's great. Just last night, she flirted with a guy, and not just because I dared her to! You should have seen her, mom, she tried singing Hamilton last night, when was the last time you heard her singing?" Lies lace her words, though she sprinkles in the truth. There is hope there, interlaced with a falseness that reflects her reluctance to admit the source of such a positive outcome. How does one tell their mother that their sibling is involved with three vampires?

"Really? And was that just because you were both drunker than skunks?" Bayak asks, causing both Tory and Jake to burst out in laughter. Only Bayak used the phrase 'drunk as a skunk' and even then no one knew where it came from. There is a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone, pieces falling into place. "Is Jake with you?"

Tory smacks her cousin on the shoulder, glaring at him. "Whaaaaat? That's crazy, mom, why would Jake be here?" She tries to play it off, though judging by the sheepish look on Jacob's face, it won't work.

"Because Billy mentioned he was in Europe currently, though unsure as to where...though he knew Jake was with them." Even after Jake had imprinted, Bayak still kept her hackles raised when it came to the Cullens. She had met Nessie, said she was a lovely girl with the misfortune of poor breeding, as if Bayak were descended from royalty herself. The vampires in the room tense, Bella and Edward exchanging a glance as the feedback on the receiver hums.

Tory scrambles for a second, grasping at straws for an excuse when the door swings open again to reveal Marcus, his face grim. Utilizing the distraction, Jake frisks the phone from Tory's grasp and grins into the receiver. "Auntie Bayak!" He only adds the 'ie' when he knows he needs to curry favor, which works almost every time as Bayak is soft on the wolves. "Tor was just trying to cover for me, you know how my dad is about me bouncing around from place to place without keeping him in the loop."

Jake is a much better liar than Tory, a fact made obvious when Bayak chuckles into the phone. "Keeping my girls in line then? I'll keep an eye on Seth for you if you are." She teases, a smile in her voice. "God knows he needs someone making sure he remembers to do something other than phase and eat." The Clearwater siblings spent more time as wolves than anyone else, save maybe Jacob, especially after the death of their father. It took a toll on them both, Seth commenting once that he feels his father is with him when he shifts into a wolf.

"Well, I appreciate you taking care of the kid for Tory and I. I'm sure Liza does as well." Jake tells his aunt, watching Tory attempt to pantomime what he should say, though he ignores her flailing limbs and fast-mouthing lips. "And how is Uncle Peter, did he head out with Charlie and my dad for the trip?"

"It's just your father and uncle this trip." There's a smile in Bayak's voice, making Jake's face morph into an expression that catches Tory's eye.

"Oh my god, Charlie finally asked Sue out!" Tory blurted. The two had danced around one another after Harry's death, kindred and comforting more so than romantic. Nessie shared her smile, though the hybrid was the only one paying attention to her, as Edward and Bella were conversing with Marcus in quick whispers.

"Shouldn't someone go looking for Elizabeth?" Nessie whispered to Tory, who in turn glared at Marcus.

"I think someone already has. Knowing my sister she took a long walk to clear her head." Tory replied, 'though hopefully not a long walk off a short pier' her thoughts completed.

Marcus is at her side the moment the words leave her mouth, eyes scrutinizing Tory's every move. He moves to gently grasp her arm to move her away from earshot of the phone's receiver, but she jumps back, refusing to allow him to touch her. There is a hooded look about him that has Tory scrutinizing him, a panic itching to be released behind the mask he has slipped in place. Her mind recalls the day before, how he looked at Eliza when he caught her as Alec's smoke overwhelmed the humans, the worried panic, the need to protect his mate. "Where is my sister?" She hisses, poking his chest with her finger. Jake looks horrified, watching Tory—who stood at all but five-foot-three, an inch shorter than her already vertically challenged sister—go against a Volturi king, it was like watching a pomeranian nip at the heels of a doberman.

Marcus says nothing, just looks at Edward who had been digging into the elder's thoughts. Edward frowns, "Jasper should go to her, he can sense and alter emotions." He speaks softly, making sure neither Jake or Bayak on the phone can hear him. When Tory looks ready to bark at him, Edward continues, "She had a panic attack. Milder than the one in the hospital." Edward had read Elizabeth's thoughts throughout her stay at the hospital, seeking to glean more information from the accident, though he had only seen just how shook up she was by the events.

Marcus looks surprised, though Tory only curses. "Fuck." She murmurs, raking a hand through her hair. Her mother's words mock her mind, 'don't make your sister anxious, Victorya.' Elizabeth had had panic attacks as a child, something Tory had taken advantage of when she was younger. She hated being known as Eliza's younger sister, instead of just Tory, so for a few years growing up she had gone out of her way to trigger her sister, though she had not done so in a great, long while. When she was young, she was quick to justify her actions, though after witnessing a particularly nasty panic attack, she had vowed to herself that she would protect Eliza from the world outside of the Reservation, because those were the only people whose opinions mattered, those of the tribe. Which was why she struggled so much, standing before Marcus, watching this vampire fret over his human mate, one that did not belong to him.

"Of course, Auntie, yes...yes…" Jake works his way towards being able to hang up the phone, "Yes, I love you too...yes, I'll tell Nessie you said hello...uh-huh, bye Aunt Bayak." Jake sighs dramatically before crossing the room and handing Tory back her phone.

She slides the cell into her pocket before turning back to Marcus, "Where is she? Did she ground herself?" The questions were shot off at quickfire pace, Tory already moving towards the door as if expecting him to lead her to her sister.

"Ground herself?" Marcus asks, eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "My brother is with her now, Alec used his gift on her, she has yet to awaken once more." Aro was a mix of worry and curiosity, eager to hold his mate and delve into her mind, bouncing theories of what her dreams could mean to Caius and Marcus when ever one arose.

Edward, ever intrusive, pulls himself from focusing on the king's thoughts to ask, "She dreams even under the influence of Alec's fog?" Both Bella and Jake still at that, sharing a look Tory does not like. She searches her mind, remembering how one moment she was staring at Marcus as he dove for Eliza to being on top of a bed, hours later. There was no sharp sensation of pain, no bump on the back of her skull, it was like….

"Like your mind is being put on pause." Edward speaks her thought aloud, Tory wants to smack him for getting into her head, it makes her feel too exposed. "So how does she dream?"

"Because, maybe it's not a dream?" Nessie asks, pursing her lips. "Tor, do you remember that story your mom would tell the children, about the raven?" The girl visited the Reservation with Jacob, the sole exception to the no Cold Ones rule, she loved playing with the children during the last holiday she had been present, listening to the stories Bayak would weave.

"The Raven and the Time King?" Tory asks, confused for a moment before understanding dawns on her face. "The story of the girl who flew from dream to dream."

"The Raven and the King of Time?" Marcus echoes, correcting the title of the story. His face darkens to match Tory's, who glared at him, wondering how he knew of a tale their grandmother had told their mother, who told them in turn. It was tradition, the women were the weavers: of cloth, of family, of legacy and stories. But Marcus needs to know the tale, Athenodora was far too intrigued by it, Eliza too defensive of it.

"I'll tell you the story, on one condition." Tory replies testily, "If Eliza ever states that she wants to go home, that she wants to go the reservation, you'll let her go, you'll make no attempt to stop or prevent her."

"Deal." Marcus responds easily, though Bella is the only one phased by it. She knows what it is like to spurn a mating bond, the numbness and loss that echoes and rattles through the soul. Bella worries for Eliza in that moment, thinking of her surrounded by family but feeling alone. She prays Eliza never enacts this agreement.

"Alright," Tory sighs, going back to sit at the table, "There once was a girl, with hair as black as a bird's feathers, so her mother named her Raven…"

A/N: Next chapter is going to be a bit different, it'll be the tale of the Raven and the King of Time (bonus points if you can guess who this is an allegory for).


	17. Chapter 17

The tale of Ravens is one thought lost to the native tribe of Quileute Indians, the written copies only made after the Whites forced their children into the schools, though even then, the stories told by the natives had no place in the colonization of what would be America.

There were so many tales lost, the elders lament to this day of the loss of history, of myths and beliefs. Grandma Maggie proudly told the tale to her daughter, prefacing that her own mother had told it to her, and her mother before her, a tradition of whispering the tale before the child slept, just as their fore mother before her did at St. Elizabeth's Boarding School at the turn of 18th century. It was easy to tell a story when you were a character, after all.

Belief is a powerful thing, charged and poignant, personified in myths, such as this one. The Quileute have a gift, is how she would begin the tale, divinity and humanity overarching in their blood, allowing it to coexist within them. The ability of the imprint, to know one's soulmate upon first glimpse with one's true sight, came from the legacy of the Raven.

She was the chief of her people, young and vibrant, with the darkest eyes and hair her mother had ever seen, so they named her Bayak. Bayak claimed her mate at a young age, for when they were together, the streams flowed strongly and the game was easy to catch. Their tribe thrived in a time before gunpowder, when other civilizations were beginning to bloom, they were strong already.

But love, with the ability to make one strong, has the ability to be the weakest link. Bayak and her mate struggled to conceive a child, with every full moon, blood would run between her legs and she would weep, far from the ears of her people, on the cliffs we now know to be in La Push.

Her cries drew the attention of the gods, who looked down on her in pity. His name lost to the ages, they began to simply call him the King of Time, as his role was the ruler of past, present and future. He came before the Raven and dried her tears with his fingers, freezing them upon her cheeks, they fell like crystals into her lap. "What is wrong, little one?" He asked her, the chill of his hands causing her breathe to fog up below her nose.

"I will never give my love a child." Bayak claimed, shying away from his touch. "How can I lead my people, give them hope for the future, when my bloodline dies with me?"

"I see." The King of Time said, nodding slowly. He understood her, better than she knew. For his love was unable to have a child, she had never foreseen one, and who was he to question the Queen of Fate? "You seek a bloodline, unbroken for a thousand years, is that what your heart imagines?"

In the Raven's mind, she envisioned a girl, with hair and eyes as dark as she, with her love's nose, his curved brow, his smile. "...yes, more than anything." She stood then, aware of who was before her. He smiled, gesturing a hand towards her, beckoning her forward.

She took his outstretched palm, fingers interlaced, the moment their skins connected, he yanked. The Raven began to fall, over the steep cliffs, her body hitting the water while her soul soared upwards, the flight of the Raven beginning. She turned, even in corporeal form yearning for her imprint, calling for him.

The man woke from the dead of sleep to find the embers of the fire within their home roaring for life, the shadows flickering to play out what had become of his love. He raced towards the beach, dove into the waters and emerged with his beloved Raven, her body drenched in icy water. He warmed her by the fire, curled her body flush against his and held her.

When she woke after three days, she told the story of the King of Time to her lover, he was in disbelief, unwilling to think of her icy plunge as a life altering baptism. Yet she ensnared him with passion and she soon fell pregnant, giving birth to two children, a boy and a girl, both with her dark features, contrasting with the snow.

When they were born, the Raven went mad with worry, fearsome that her children would not survive, few first borns lived past their first year, especially when born in the winter. So she took the children to the cliff on the first full moon of their lives, and called for the King of Time to appear.

Like Rumpelstiltskin, the trickster offered her a deal, give her daughter a long, full life and a daughter of her own, to begin a bloodline that would never end, in exchange for giving up her son forever. With bitter tears, the Raven agreed, giving her son to the god before her.

Yet he placed the babe in the arms of a woman with fiery red hair, her warm skin comforting the chilled child. She is said to have loved him at first sight, calling him the proof of Love in humanity, that it is willing be to sacrificed completely.

When the Raven's mate heard tale of this, he flew into a bitter rage, his soul twisting his body in his grief and anger, causing him to shift into his spirit form while still on the living plane, the first wolf of the Quileute tribe. The loss of their child broke the love between them, the Raven no longer able to feel the imprint bond, the Wolf unable to love anyone else, cursed to feel his center of gravity from a desolate woman. Their daughter shared her fate, trapped in the inability to recognize an imprint bond, even when another wolf was besotted with her, twenty years later.

The tale must never be forgotten, the shame of the Raven, the unbroken blood of the first imprint, which flows through the tribes veins, some stronger than others. For as long as there has been written recordings of the births in the tribes, as well as those who have spoken of centuries beforehand, there has always been a first born daughter to have a daughter of her own. From the first Raven, Bayak, to Margaret Young, who named her own first born Bayak.

A/N: Omg guys, I'm so sorry this took so long. Ive been wrestling with plot points for the story and have so much shit happening in real life.

An update on the past few months of my life:

-Graduated from University with my B.A. in English!

-Applied for and was offered a teaching position in Spain!

So I moved to AZ for the summer and leave in a week and a half for Spain! Sorry this took so long to write!


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this so late, I don't have WiFi at my place yet (I'm hot spotting my iPad to post this haha). I had actually written snippets of this a while back, but figured now was the best place to insert it. This chapter happens around when Tory is telling the legend, perhaps a bit afterwards. Recap being that Eliza had passed out from her panic attack and is now waking up. Also, sort of a smut scene here? It's my first real attempt at anything like it, so if its awful I'm sorry. Also the song Eliza plays is "Blue Daliah" by The Gaslight Anthem. 3

Eliza blinked awake, the soft bedding she resided upon confirming her suspicions, her panic attack had caused her to lose consciousness and she had been taken to Marcus's room to rest. The bedding soft, albeit mussed beneath her. Marcus perched himself on the edge of the bed, having been listening to her breathing change when she began to awake. He smiled at her, with a softness seemed only for her, though he still held himself with such a weight on his shoulders. "Have you ever mourned someone who was alive?" Eliza asked suddenly, the thought spilling from her lips like a fountain overflowing. "It's so...invalidating." She struggled to find the right word to describe how she felt, to give syntax to feelings.

But Marcus was unphased, if anything he looked at her with a new level of understanding. "Her name was Sulpicia, she was Aro's sister and for a time...my mate."

"What?" Eliza blurted, contorting her body to face him fully, sitting up in the bed. Eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Aro had never mentioned a sister and she was under the assumption that when vampires mated, there was no do overs.

"Perhaps mate is not the best word…" His stoic expression was filled with mirth, a strange juxtaposition. "She was my companion, we were lovers for the better part of two hundred years."

"What happened to her?" Eliza was afraid to ask, but she needed to know. They were talking of false mourning, after all. Marcus flitted to the other corner of the room, where his looming bookshelf stood, pulling out an ancient looking tome. He flipped through it, to a page yellowed with age, and held it up for her to see. In extensive detail was the portrait of a woman with Aro's smile and kind, cherry red eyes. She was a dark beauty, raven-black hair and a hooded gaze, Eliza felt plain next to the image. She frowned at the sight of a small signature in the corner of the drawing, 'MV,' Marcus Volturi.

"She found her true mate." Marcus replied, a statement of fact, devoid of emotion. For the first time since they met, he looked like how Eliza had been told he was before she had arrived: lifeless, dull, lost. "Vampires are meant to be in covens, to have a mate, companionship through the lonely years. We knew we were not meant to be together permanently, but what time we did have together eased the loneliness, the ache."

"Is she happy?" It was a stupid question to ask, but one Eliza thought she needed to know. Her mind and heart were still odds with how to feel about Sam, should she feel betrayed or relieved that she was alive, even if it meant with someone else? Would it have made a difference, she pondered, if Sam were a vampire without a mate, knowing that Eliza was not her's, yet still wanted to be with her? The thought of gaining and losing her again was heart wrenching, though they had been together but a few years, not two hundred.

"Very, though how a woman as lovely as Sulpicia would end up mated to a man named Fred, I will never understand." He crinkles his nose in disgust, shuddering at the thought. It made Eliza laugh, which warmed his cold gaze.

"Sulpicia is such a pretty name...but Fred? Not so much." She teased. Eliza almost asked how they met, if they seemed to love each other more than he had Sulpicia, but it seemed cruel. Lora had looked at Sam like the world spinning around the sun, willing to burn her pupils to gaze at such beauty. She couldn't think of a moment they had looked at one another like that, not even wrapped in poor thread count sheets in their first apartment together. She sighed, the silence stretching. She wanted to say something, but nothing seemed right. "Do you...do you mind if I play music or something?" He nodded, putting the picture back after one more hard, long glance. Eliza fished her phone out of her pocket, pressing shuffle over and over until she found something she liked.

The music hummed softly, "What a hot and sultry summer, steam just slides up off them streets. You gotta stay inside and wait for the night and then come on over and see me…" Eliza loved this song, it was from her favorite album, though looking at Marcus it seemed to have whole new context. "Cause there's a poetry about these streets and it slips from your skin and goes right underneath and Mama always knew I'd meet a girl like you, but me, I never believed…"

Eliza smiled, turning so the two were face to face, knees touching as she twisted her torso, her lips brushing against his cheek, cold as stone against her hot flesh. It was comforting in ways she did not expect, listening to the beat of the music and the sudden, sharp intake of breath, though Marcus had no need to breathe, she had learned. "Would you laugh if I said this song made me think of you?"  
Cause I've been so lonely I can't imagine that kind of sympathy  
Cause I've been so lonely I can't imagine that kind of sympathy

Where'd you get them scars? How blue is your heart?

Is sad enough break? She said it's sad enough to break

They were kissing before Eliza could think to do anything else, Marcus pressing his body against hers, her fingers tangling in his hair. Even though his eyes were closed, she could see them, black with hunger, craving her: her body, her aching heart, seeking to quench a loniless within them both.

How long was your life? Was it cold and strange like mine?

Are you man enough to lay here, she said I'm man enough my baby

Come see about me, come see about me, whenever you're lonely

The bed, already mussed from her previous slumber, welcomed both their forms, the pillows shielding her soft gasp when his lips trailed down her jawline, across her neck, nipping at her veins as if in playful warning of the predator she was lying with. Yet she did not shy away, rather she pressed her heaving chest closer to his, back arching to close any gaps between them. For a moment, she was content to feel him against her, his lips ravishing her. Yet with the rising tide of need, her fingers moved to remove his shirt, slipping in their eagerness and tearing a button loose. "Oops..." She whispered breathlessly, only for Marcus to rip the remaining buttons clean off and tear his shirt clean away, leaving the discarded garment crumpled on the floor. A necklace with the Volturi crest glinted in the light from his neck and Marcus gently rebuffed her attempt to remove it and she sensed he was not used to being without it. His smile was slightly feral as his fingers returned the favor, only gently, splaying across the exposed expanse of her flesh as her top was removed from her.

"Belissima…" The awe of his voice left her suddenly embarrassed. Vampires were made to be creatures of beauty, she was plain in comparison to any of them. Even Sam, who was a beauty as a human, seemed ethereal now. Shame rose within her, both for her lack of confidence and for thinking of a previous lover when tangled in bed with another man.

She almost said something, but Marcus tore her bra clean in half and buried his face between her breasts, kissing and nipping. Within the haze of lust, she could think of nothing but wanting his lips to explore other valleys of her body and for her to feel him, completely. She had had sex with both men and women before, once with one of each at the same time, though this time seemed different than every other. Part of her rationalized that it had been a few years since she had laid with a man, though she knew the real reason was that having sex with someone had never felt so right before. Eliza yearned to be touched, to feel love personified, not just lust. The ache in Marcus was one she shared, the longing to be complete again.

And as the clothing on their skin dwindled, the feeling was ebbed with his touch. "...do you want me to stop?" His words were pained, as if it would break him if she said he did. So Eliza hooked her leg around him and Marcus allowed her to be in control, to flip their forms so that she was on top of him, the throbbing need between her legs met his hardened cock and she slid in slowly, with one long, deep sigh. His eyes flickered open, staring at her agape, in awe of her presence, of the mate bond solidifying between them, one strand of braided rope shimming in exctasy with the two lovers joining for the first time.

His fingers twisted into her hair, pulling her down to meet his lips as she moved her hips slowly at first, adjusting to him inside of her before the need grew too strong and his hands moved to her hips to assist her in riding him, the haze of pleasure leaving fingersized bruises on her flesh, though Eliza herself would not notice until after. They didn't speak, simply gasped and groaned with every shift of one another's body until Eliza was panting, shaking on top of him and finally whimpered out his name. She needed something, anything to drop her off the edge of the cliff she stood upon, and he kissed her, a tangle of teeth and tongue until one sharpened fang caught her swollen bottom lip, drawing blood. His closed eyes opened, sex and blood lust clouding his thoughts as he drew her wound into his own mouth, tongue lapping at the stray drop, tugging on her entire being as she shattered in his arms, his name muffled from her lips into his own mouth until Marcus shifted them so that he was pounding into her, spilling his seed inside of her as she came above him and then half collapsed onto his chest, throughoughly and utterly spent.

She lay, half on top of him, panting for a few short moments before muttering, "Fuck, I didn't even think about a condom." The musing caused a choked laugher to erupt from Marcus, more genuine that she had ever heard him laugh. He kissed the crown of her head and then took the Volturi crest from his neck and draped it onto hers, claiming her more than he already had. She laughed as well at that, muttering, "Noli me tangerine, Caesaris sum."

"Touch me not, for Caesar's I am?" Marcus mused, "I didn't know you spoke Latin." The smile in his voice pleased her, though she was doomed to disappoint him.

"I wrote a paper once on 'Whoso List to Hunt' by Wyatt" She replied, surprised by the widening smile she saw out of the corner of her eye. "He was talking about Anne Boleyn."

"Well, I promise not to behead you under the excuse of having sex with your brother." He replied, after a moment adding, "Or mine, I suppose. Caius would be quite cross, though I suspect he already is." Realization, always a curse, dawned on her then. Just how heightened was vampiric senses? Marcus chuckled at her racing heart, deciding then to tease her, "Half the castle probably heard us, not to mention the guards in the hall."

She blushed scarlet, burying her face in the curve of his neck, "Please, just kill me now, because I will never be able to look anyone in the eye." Eliza prided herself on her open mindedness, that she did not balk at the sexuality of others, nor her own sexual appetite, but having to face everyone after they heard her having sex with someone was a critical wound to her pride, especially considering how she mewled and whimpered when under the regalia of pleasure.

Marcus chuckled once more, about to answer, yet instead quickly moved to pull the drawn back sheet over their bodies, protecting the naked forms from view just as the doors burst open. Caius curled his lips as Aro merely smiled without teeth, "Well, that was a turn of events I did not expect to see so soon, even after the little seer predicted it to pass." Aro said in a soft voice. Eliza wanted to die, not sure what was worse, that Alice had a vision of her and Marcus fucking, or that her other two mates had walked in afterwards.


	19. Chapter 19

All vampires in the room stilled, ears straining, a cascade of different expressions crossing their faces, for most of the Cullens, it was a mixture of shock and worry. Lora rolled her eyes while Sam stiffened to impossible amount of rigidness. Jake frowned and Nessa giggled, shocked her hearing could extend that far considering her half human nature. Tory, the lone human, glanced around the room in confusion, "What's wrong?" She asked, studying the growing tension in the room in response to her question.

But Sam flew from her seat, clearly uncomfortable. Her red eyes were bleeding into black and she gave a steely glance of warning to her mate not to follow her. As the door clicked behind her, she heard Lora say bluntly, "Your sister just spread her legs to the solemn king." The mate bond writhed in her, demanding her to stop with the petty sense of jealously that overwhelmed her. Damn her lack of control! Carlisle had warned her of the first year, of the mood swings and how easily she could get caught up in the well of emotions and senses that deepened as a vampire. She loved Lora, truly, but the thought of her Radimaze fucking an ancient one, a shadow of a man, threw her into a rage.

She wound her way through the maze that was the castle, attempting to be far away from the carnal sounds she had previously heard. She kept a human pace, as to not arouse suspicion from the cloaked vampires of the Volturi. Yet after a moment, clumsy, human footsteps sounded, bare feet padding along in a hurry, heading straight for her. Sam recognized the soft, sweet scent that reminded her of spiced apples and instead of fleeing like she knew she should, she stopped and waited. From her vantage point around the corner, she could see the three kings in the flash that the door opened, Marcus upright in his bed, sheet fallen to his waist and looking more alive than what had ever been described of him, while Caius and Aro stood in a half circle before him, lips curled in half snarls. Eliza had opened the door, clothed in nothing but what Sam could smell to be Marcus's cloak. She drowned in it, but it was no doubt the first thing she thought to put on, to cover her naked body and flee. The tension was palpable as Eliza weakly said, "I should...go…" Her face was crimson, her usually sleek hair an absolute mess, as though fingers had been laced through the locks, no doubt tugged upon, as Sam used to, eager for the little whimpers that came from Eliza when they were both still human, when they would make love as Eliza had just to Marcus.

Sam slipped back when she saw Eliza head her way, putting enough distance so that when Eliza reached her they would be far enough away as to not be easily heard by the three kings, whom no doubt would be thoroughly distracted with one another at this point. Eliza rounded the corner and Sam allowed her to run into her, as if it were an accident that Sam was there. When their bodies collided, she sucked in a breathe, as if to seem surprised, yet rage filled her. Eliza's scent was soaked through with that of Marcus's, it riddled her flesh and clung to her, causing Sam to crinkle her nose in disgust. Why was she jealous? She loved Lora, in a way that did not match what she and Eliza had, yet the human in her cried fowl.

"Jesus!" Eliza's heart pounded in her chest, she was clearly surprised and it made Sam want to sink her teeth into the human's neck. "Sam, fuck, you scared the shit out of me!" Always one with a mouth, just as Sam remembered her to be. Her human memories were like the old photo albums her mom had inherited from generations before, cloudy, scratched and barely visible. Yet with vampiric eyes, Sam saw Elizabeth in a new light, in HD. When she first saw her, she was amazed by how beautiful she was for a human, yet now she saw what Marcus had done. The slight bruise on her neck, a hickey forming, the mussed hair that frizzes out around her, the smell of other bruising forming from his harsh touch. Bella had told Sam about how she and Edward had slept together on their honeymoon, how bruised and battered she was, and it seemed Eliza how stood similar, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent.

Sam sniffed, looking down at Eliza, eyes narrowed, "Perhaps you should watch where you're going then." She purposely looked over Eliza with scathing glance, "Especially when dressed like that." The cloak was the darkest shade of black, revealing to a vampiric eye that it was that of a king's. The Volturi used shading to define the pecking order, to the point that a human would only be able to tell the greyer shade from the black, when in reality there were many shades that only a keen sight could reveal. "Rumor has it a vampire had to drain two humans before his arm would attach properly."

Eliza flinched, confining that Demetri had in fact dismembered someone for touching her. Sam was toeing a dangerous line, but her indignant rage still bubbled inside her, so she pressed on. "Half the castle heard you, you know. Fucking him." Her teeth flashed, revealing fangs, eyes turning darker by the second.

"What?" Eliza squeaked, realizing clouding her face. "Oh…" Her lips pursed, expression turning sheepish.

"Yeah, nice one." Sam replied, surprising herself with how much she enjoyed the embarrassment Eliza was feeling the shame. But suddenly, Eliza looked at her, studied her, the way she seemed so pleased and her temper flared.

"Are you….are you fucking slut shaming me right now?" The spark in Eliza's eyes burst into life, reminding Sam of how she would debate on the oppression of women and minorities, how quickly she came to the defense of the oppressed. "Wow…."

"You've known him what, a day? It's not slut shaming if you're acting like a slut!" Words spewed from her, things that should have remained thoughts but came forward on their own accord. "Jesus, Radimaze, we didn't sleep together until what, three weeks in? A month?"

Eliza's heart beat faster, teasing the burning in Sam's throat. Both women had balled their hands into fists at this point, unaware that they had done so. Suddenly, Eliza closed her eyes, squeezing them closed with over exaggerated concentration, lips pursed. "What are you doing?" Sam growled, scoffing slightly.

"Trying to reverse time so I can fuck him again, just to piss you off!" Eliza bit back, opening her eyes just to curl her lip and poke Sam in the chest, "Hell, I might go back for round two just so you know how fucking good the sex was!"

"My mom once said you'd leave me for a man, I guess she was right, you did for three." Sam said, practically in Eliza's face. Her parents' rejection of her sexuality still stung, an open wound festering.

"Fuck you! I didn't leave you, you let me think you were dead!" Eliza replied, shaking with rage, "And don't tell me you haven't fucked that Spanish bitch!"

Sam rolled her eyes before yelling back, "She's Dominican! And yes, I have, is that what you want to hear? I fucked my fucking mate! My only mate, at least I can make up my mind in that regard!"

Eliza threw her hands in the air in frustration, "Fuck! You act like I chose this! Do you think I want to be here? You were the one who wanted to go abroad, you convinced me to apply for the teaching program with you! I don't even speak Italian!" She stepped closer, intending to scream in Sam's face, causing the vampire to stiffen as her scent, the smell of the blood pounding with rage beneath her flesh, raised the hackles of her instincts. "If you hadn't of pressured me to come, I would be in La Push right now, not being hailed as the Queen of the Damned!"

Sam didn't move, she barely registered Eliza's words. 'Feed….feed….bite her….' Newborn instincts hissed, she struggled to keep still, eyes black as pitch. Eliza was right in her face, huffing with indignation, blood pumping, Sam's eyes flicked to her neck, rage coursing. Eliza was wearing a Volturi crest, a collar of ownership practically. Sam sucked in a breath in attempt to calm herself but it only allowed the sweet scent on Eliza's skin—muddled with that of Marcus's, a claim laid—to push her ever closer to simply tearing into the human's neck, destroying the rage, jealousy and thirst that threatened to consume her.

She moved to strike, yet the moment her fangs curled over her lips…. "Pain." The word was so soft, Eliza did not even catch it, only heard the howl that Sam released as she collapsed to the floor. Even turning did not hurt this much, ever molecule of her being was burning so much hotter, a vampire's pain instead of a human's.

"Jesus, Jane! Stop!" Eliza panicked from above her, Sam writhing as she was picked up by the neck and slammed against the wall. Her knees buckled, dragging on the floor as Jane pinned her in place. There was hunger in her eyes, a small, demonically angelic face piercing her soul, Jane was half rabid.

"She was going to feed on you." Jane spoke not to Sam, but to Eliza, though her gaze never wavered. The pain increased suddenly, an overwhelming agony that caused her to scream brokenly, mouth twisting without a sound. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Newborns are so...idiotic in nature."

Sam could not speak, could not even open her eyes over the crashing waves of fire that stung her entire body, her soul even cowered.

"I said stop, Jane!" Eliza had steel in her voice, but her knees quaked together, revealing her fear. Weakly, she whispered something that had been said by the Kings to those in the guard before, "That's an order...Jane." The pain receded almost immediately as Jane released her vice grip. She flitted before Elizabeth, head tilted in a childish way that might have been cute if not so terrifying.

"So you give orders now." Jane smiled, no teeth but still sharp, "I almost ate you too, you know, before my master's claimed you as theirs." Jane sniffed at her, a bit too close for the human's comfort. "One more so than the others…." Elizabeth took a shaking breath and nodded.

There was silence for a moment, stretching out until Eliza broke it, "Will you take me to my room, where my clothes are? I'd like to shower." She frowned, glancing between the two sets of black eyes, "And then, um….go feed. Like, on a child molestor or a murderer or something, both of you."

A tinkling bell of a laugh erupted from Jane, surprising Sam with the childish innocence it held. "My masters have forbidden me to feed on humans for a few days. Yet I still seem to hold myself in your company better than her." Jane flicked her eyes to Sam, who curled her lip and slowly rose from the floor.

"I'll talk to them, it'll be fine. I won't have Tory at risk of being bitten aga—of being bitten at all, from either of you." Eliza stuttered, causing Sam to wonder. If what had been said about her ex was true, Eliza had loops in her timeline, moments that only occurred for her, had Sam bitten Tory and Eliza reversed time? She shuddered at the thought, though recognized it was possible, she had almost bitten Eliza just now after all.

"As you wish….my Queen." Jane forced the words from her mouth, that much was clear. Though displeased with the obedience she was forced to give, she did seem pleased with the prospect of feeding from human flesh. Jane pinned her in place with a glare. "Stay here, then we'll go." She motioned for Eliza to follow her, down the twisting paths of the castle to where her clothes and other things resided, Sam watched them, a feeling of dread sinking into her growling stomach.

A/N:

Yo guys! I was falling asleep the other night and had this half dream, half musing of Sam reacting to Eliza sleeping with Marcus, so I wanted to write a chapter in her point of view. Sorry the updates are so erratic, I moved from California to Spain a few months ago so life has been hectic. Please review so I know people are still reading and tell me what you think!!!


	20. Chapter 20

The entire castle seemed blanketed in the chill, though vampires had no need for air conditioning, humans did. Eliza scurried to her original destination before Sam intervened, her bedroom. Or at least, the room where her stuff had been placed. It felt strange, considering anything in the castle to be her own, even her own body, in light of the blood lust that followed her beating heart in such a still place. It was not a place for humans, for they tended to end up on the menu rather than welcomed as guests and she was both the exception and the rule.

The room was comfortable, packed with human amenities and, she noticed with a slight sense of dread, her suitcase had already been unpacked, clothing hung in the massive closet or placed in drawers, her laptop resting in the center of an old, dark oak desk. She sat down in the massive chair, like a child in their parents' office, and opened the device. Notifications lit up the home screen, causing her brow to furrow, the castle seemed ancient, yet someone had set up her computer with WiFi? She snorted through her nose, a long exhale of humor at the thought of them being able to do something so modern. Her computer was connected to her phone, so there were almost two dozen texts waiting for her. She passed on reading those from her family, even her grandmother's one line message and went to her friend's. Fiona had written a paragraph, asking how she was, if she would visit, if she had found a place yet. Fiona had moved to London after completing her Masters degree, intent on getting her Doctorate in English in England. Eliza remembered her saying it felt right, to study the language where it originated from. It made her laugh to hear her friend call a sweater a jumper after only being across the pond for a few months.

Impulsively, she clicked to video call her friend, knowing the time difference was smaller between them than anyone else they knew.

On the second ring, Fiona's face appeared, brown, curly hair in a messy bun, amber eyes lighting up with delight upon the video connecting to show Eliza, no doubt in a state. "Damn girl, you look like you got rode hard and put up wet! You took my advice then?" In the weeks between the funeral and her coming to Volterra, Fiona and Eliza had spent hours on video calls, sometimes talking, sometimes in silence. Fiona had told her it would be okay to move on, to have a rebound relationship to get herself on track. If Eliza remembered right, Fiona's exact words were 'the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else,' which Eliza in return had barked out a laugh over, the first laugh in a long time.

"Not exactly, I mean…" She smiled sheepishly, fingers combing her hair—which no doubt was in a state considering Marcus had wound his hands through the strands when they had….had sex? Made love? She couldn't find a proper title—only to reveal a bruise on the side of her neck. "Hello to you too, Fi!"

"And hello hickey!" Fiona laughed, bright and cheery, exactly what Eliza needed to hear, though perhaps not at her extent. "What's their name? Romeo or Juliet?"

Eliza scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Romeo." Though she hoped it would not end in death like in the play. She noted Fiona on the screen, studying her loose t-shirt and messy stack of books and random paperwork that was barely visible around her. "Did I interrupt your writing?"

Fiona made a 'psh' noise and waved her hand in front of the camera, "Can't interrupt something that isn't happening, love! Writers block is a real bitch, you saved me from looking at an empty paragraph. It's like writing has become work, who knew agreeing to write another thesis could be such a bitch?"

"Life's a bitch and so are you, Fi." Eliza joked, a play on a previous musing between the two of them. "I'm sure it'll be great and some undergrad will use it as a source in their Intro to Lit paper in a few years."

Fiona rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Enough shop talk, tell me everything about Italy, about Romeo, about Tory driving you nuts. I want to live vicariously through you! Take me to Italy in my mind, girl!"

What should she say, though? From what Tory had explained, humans aware of vampires should be turned or killed, unless they were a wolf or an imprint of one. And how could she explain she had three ancient, albeit incredibly attractive, men after her? The best lie was mainly truth, she supposed, so she painted on a fox-like smile and told a story.

"Well, Tory and I were touring this castle when I slipped on the old stone. Who polishes the floors when a tour is coming through, anyways? And I fell right into this guy's arms. Tall, dark and handsome, he legit catches me right before my head would have smacked the ground! And-"

"Damn!" Fiona interrupts, fingers splayed over her mouth in surprise. It makes Eliza grin, though she feels bad for telling lies to her friend. "That's some knight in shining armor shit right there. Does he have a brother?" Her friend says it jokingly, but Eliza sees an in.

"Two actually." The blush that dusts her cheeks gives her away and Fiona whistles.

"And which one is Romeo?" Fiona asks, leaning closer, like she was being told about Beowulf and not the latest gossip.

"Marcus, but Aro and Caius are also….interested….in me?" She laughs sheepishly and Fiona loses her mind, hands clapping as she laughs and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

"Damn girl, get it!" Fiona teases, "Are you gonna be play Bachelorette and give out roses or just have a harem?"

Eliza laughs this time, shrugging. "They're all like...super hot….would it be bad to be in a harem?" She smiles with a sense of light heartedness that only Fiona can seem to give her, mostly because they can talk so freely with one another, without judgment, exactly what she needed after the run in with Sam.

"Yaaaas, queen! Live that anime life!" Fiona half screams, "Okay, I'm going to look for flights, next break from school, I'm coming to meet your harem and maybe find myself a cousin or something!" She's grinning from ear to ear, but it fills Eliza with dread. How good are the Volturi at playing human? "Also, have you found a place yet, it seems a bit too posh where you are now to be your new place."

"Too posh, is it?" Eliza teases with a horrendous attempt at a British accent. In a normal voice, she continues, realizing it is what she wants the moment she says it, "I'm spending the weekend looking for apartments. One close to work, hopefully. I have a week before I start, so hopefully I can find a more permanent living situation before Tory flies home in a few days."

Fiona smiles, "Good. I'm proud of you, you know. It must be hard, being in a new place on your own, it'll be hard for a while but it gets better. Sam would want you to be happy, to move on, you know?" The words are meant to bring her comfort, but they only fill her with dread. Sam was not happy at all that she had moved on, but she couldn't tell Fiona that, so she just smiled.

"Thanks, Fiona. I appreciate it. It was great talking to you, I'll let you get back to your thesis." She laughed at Fiona's imitation of flipping a table in response.

"Thesis writing sucks! But I love and support you, Liza. Call or text anytime, okay?" Fiona asked, to which Eliza nodded and they ended the call.

"Who was that?" Aro, silent as the grave, stood in her shadow, just outside of the camera's view when she was video chatting. How long had he been there?

A/N:

I feel like I leave notes at the end of each chapter at this point haha. Happy chapter twenty! I had been debating on adding Fiona to the story but I felt like Eliza needed someone to talk to and I got a lovely review today telling me this was the best Volturi poly story they had read and asked me to please update, so reviews make stuff happen! Love you all just for reading, though haha.


	21. Chapter 21

Eliza jumped, though she was happy the video call had disconnected just before she reacted, heart racing as her palm flew to her chest instinctively. "Fucking fuck!" The words slipped from her mouth before she had a chance to restrain herself and she scowled at the vampire.

"Who. Was. That." Aro repeated himself, clearly displeased. For the first time, Eliza saw him in a state other than complete perfection: his hair was slightly mussed, as if he had been running his hand through it in frustration, his cloak even seemed slightly rumbled, eyes fading from red into a dull black.

"My friend." She replied, mimicking his tone. Eliza shut the laptop with a soft click and stood, ignoring him in favor of rummaging through her luggage looking for a hairbrush and a fresh set of clothes. She had wanted to take a shower but would settle for a new set of underwear and some fuzzy slippers.

"Did you lie to her?" Aro questioned. He crossed his arms and watched her, lips pursed.

"About?" All she seemed to do as of late was argue with someone, perhaps that was why she was so combative in that moment. The temporary peace she had found in her chat with Fiona was being picked apart and she had no patience for it.

"You aren't finding your own apartment. That's ridiculous." His tone was flippant, as if he were explaining simple logic to a preschooler. It made her blood boil.

"What am I supposed to do? Like in Dracula's castle?" She hissed, throwing down the pair of warm socks she had just found and instead dug for a pair of sneakers, only to see them on the floor. When she reached for them, Aro struck like a snake, gripping her wrist a touch too firmly.

"In the Volturi Castle." He snapped back, she had clearly hit a nerve. "With your mates, where you belong."

"I don't belong anywhere!" Eliza replied coldly, opening a wound she had long tried to bury, the fact that she had no solid ground to stand on. She was the only Keyire she knew of, the only one who could not trace back maternal and paternal ancestry to a tribe. She was the outlier, the one who wanted a life off of the reservation simply because she would never truly be a part of her own people and she hated herself for it. And now here she was, confronted with someone saying they wanted her to be a part of them, yet she was the lone mortal in what was a coven of people who lived forever. And did she really want to live forever? To feel the crippling sense of loneliness that had shrouded her for her entire life….forever? A part of her reasoned she would not be alone, she would have the three kings with her forever, but that in and of itself set her apart more than her paternity ever did. She loved the Greek myth of the creation of man, that Zeus was jealous of the harmony of the creatures he had made so he ripped them in two, forever searching for their other half. She had thought Sam could fill that void, but for her it was Lora and now Eliza was left adrift.

"Yes, you do. You feel the pull of the mate bond, one that's partially settled." He frowned, envy in his eyes and he continued, "Settled with Marcus at least."

Eliza scoffed, pulling herself away from him and sliding on her sneakers, not bothering to untie and redo the laces. "Is this your way of trying to get me to sleep with you? Or perhaps you want a four person sex session, is that it? You, me and your brothers?"

He sighed, clearly frustrated with her, though she was with him as well, or rather, the situation she found herself in. "I want you, in any way you will have me. You are young, I concede to that, but I have been yearning for a mate for years and now here you are so...delicate, so fragile, so…" Aro trailed off again, a hint of unease in his eyes.

"So human? Sorry I haven't allowed myself to be killed yet." Eliza bit back and she saw his expression change as he remembered what she had shown him, Lora tearing out her throat mercilessly, Jane doing the same to her sister.

"No!" His arms enveloped her before she could protest, causing her to quickly realize that all three kings were taller than her, Caius the most and Aro the least; her nose tucked right into his shoulder, causing her to inhale the scent of him, which calmed her more than she would like to admit. The sleeves of his cloak dripped back as he threaded his fingers in her hair, running the digits through the strands, she could have melted into his arms after she placed her face into his neck and she heard a soft rumbling, a purr of contentment she had only recently learned vampires could do. "I want you here...with me...with us...because you make me feel complete in ways I did not know I could feel." His words were honey, but too sweet, too perfect and with a start she remembered his gift, his ability to see into someone's mind with skin to skin contact. He had read her thoughts when he gripped her hand earlier.

The room grew cold as her face grew hot, rage drowning her. She shoved him away and startled herself when he stumbled almost half way across the room, vampires were solid as stone yet she had sent him a good distance. Eliza looked down at her hands: ice blue fingertips. Scared and unsure, she ran. Though she had gotten lost easily before, she went right to where she knew her sister would be, as if she could sense her. Eliza threw open the door and found Tory with Jacob, Renesmee, Bella and Edward, in the middle of a story by the laughter of the group and Jacob's wild hand gestures. "So there I was, naked, clothes shredded from wolfing out and-"

"Jacob." Edward interrupted him, staring with concern at Elizabeth, who immediately tried to clear her mind, not wishing for another mental invasion.

"Tory." Her voice was not as strong as she wished it to be, but continued nonetheless, "Would you like to explore the city with me for a bit? Maybe look into apartments?"

"Um...sure, Liza. Whatever you want to do, I'm here for you." The group seated on the couch all exchanged wary glances before looking over Eliza's shoulder, where in the doorway stood all three kings.

Tory scurried to her sister's side and took her hand as a show of support and solidarity, looking at the tree vampires who blocked their path. "Move." Eliza said coldly, causing Caius to grin as if it were a challenge.

"Elizabeth, let's talk about this-" Aro beseeched, only to be met with a snarl from his mate.

"I said: move!" She took a step forward, half dragging Tory with her, "Or I swear to whatever god you believe in, I will make you!" Tory took a shaking breath, only to exhale and see it fog up in front of her nose, the entire room had a chill that was only growing.

"E-Elizabeth?" Perhaps it was because Tory had used her full name, perhaps it was the fear in her voice that caused her to stutter, but she snapped out of her rage to look at her sister, just to find she was staring at their linked hands. From her wrist down was ice blue. 'Is this how Loki felt when he found out he was a Frost Giant?' It was a stupid thought, she knew, but it was all she could think as she realized how warm her sister's hand had become, or rather, how cold hers was. 'Oh god, oh fuck.' She barreled forward, not sure if the men had moved or she had shoved them. Tunnel vision kept her from doing anything but leaving that damn castle, she followed the path Demetri had taken them before and did not stop until she was standing in direct sunlight, Tory heaving air into her lungs next to her, causing her to realize she had ran the whole way.

"It's okay...you're okay….here." Tory dug into her pocket and pulled out the white salmon their mother had made and thrust it into Eliza's palm, the blue faded in an instant.

How many times had she been crying the past few days? She had lost count as she clutched the piece of carved wood and wept. Too much had happened, werewolves, vampires, and how whatever was happening to her? It was too much, far too much.

"I'm scared Tor."

"It's okay, I am too."

A/N:

I can't remember if the vampire purring thing is cannon to Twilight or from another series, either way, I love the concept as a showing of contentment reserved only for a mate (although I could see the Cullens doing it for baby Nessie).


	22. Chapter 22

Tory was the middle child in every sense of the title: both protected and protected, nurturer and nurtured, yet usually she played the part of the wise sibling with Louis, while she in turn looked up to Eliza. But seeing her sister, half colapsed on the floor of a lesser crowded street, sunlight stretching across her limbs as the icy blue coloring receded from her elbow, to her palm, to her fingertips, Tory knew it was time for her to step up.

"Come on, 'Liza, let's get you a cup of coffee, we'll figure this out, together." She held out her hand and after a shaky breathe, Eliza took it and rose to her feet. Tory wrapped an arm around her sister's waist, gently guiding her towards a small cafe where they sat down in direct sunlight at Eliza's insistence.

She leaned back in her seat and put her hands in her pocket, only to feel the cool wood of the salmon charm that their mother had carved. "Here Eliza, mom wanted you to have this, anyways." She pressed the wood into ELiza's shaking hand, Tory almost jumped at cold her sister's hand was but what worried her most was how warm it became once the wood touched her flesh.

"I should have never insisted on coming." The words were a whisper but Tory still frowned upon hearing them. "I mean….vampires? Werewolves? What the fuck?" Eliza shook her head, tears welling her eyes. Tory reached across the table and squeezed her sister's hand.

"Technically shapeshifters who traditionally take the form of wolves...but, yeah." Tory tried to sound comforting and was relieved to hear her sister laugh. "It's okay, it's gonna be okay."

"Always a stickler for the facts, Tor." Eliza deadpanned with a ghost of a smile. She opened her mouth to say more but a man dressed as a waiter appeared at the table. He spoke in rapid fire Italian and they both smiled sheepishly. "Caffelatte?"

The man smiled in a patronizing way, realizing then that they were foreigners and turned to Tory, who just held up two fingers, "Um...same?" He didn't write it down, simply nodded and walked away. When he was far enough out of ear shot, Tory leaned in and whispered, "So...what did we just order?"

Eliza laughed, grinning, "I made myself a cheat sheet of Italian words a while back, although I'm probably pronouncing them all wrong. He's going to bring us coffee with milk….shit, I don't know how to say sugar, though." It was Tory's turn to laugh. In more touristy areas, the servers usually spoke just enough English to understand what they wanted, or had menus with the items listed in English underneath the description in Italian, so they had been able to simply point at what they wanted. But

Tory had been chasing after her sister and now she wasn't sure where they were, it seemed to be a more historic, lesser visited part of Volterra.

It was beautiful though, the buildings looking older than anything she had seen in America, all clustered together down winding streets of cobbled stone. "It's really pretty here, Eliza, I'm sure you'll be happy here." Eliza looked at her with a wary gaze, "And hey, I got an email back from that lady with the apartment! We can look at it in an hour!"

"That's good." Eliza replied softly, not looking up from her hands.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Tory asked. Eliza looked up then, biting her lip as if in fear of what the response would be if she spoke.

"So, you know how you were telling me about how a mating bond is similar to imprinting?" There was hesitance soaked in every word. "How did Seth tell you?"

That made Tory laugh, a deep, belly laugh. "Well...we'd been dating for around...six months? And he basically said he was thinking of not continuing with college, he just wanted to 'do his own thing' and I told him he needed to at least be working and he was all angsty and riled up but wouldn't tell me why, so I told him if he wanted to do his own thing, he could do it without me. And he freaked out, like, biblical freak out."

"Really?" Eliza leaned in, surprise coating her face. "What'd you do?"

Tory shrugged, it wasn't her best moment, "I told him if we were going to be together he needed to have his shit together and I wasn't about to be with a guy who lived at home and did nothing with his life. Turns out...it was when the whole thing happened with Bella giving birth and the Volturi thinking they had created an eternal child."

"Wait...Bella gave birth? When, where's the baby?" Eliza was wide eyed and Tory realized then just how out of the loop she had truly been. When her sister was at school, it was easy to gloss over the supernatural aspects of life on the Rez, only now it seemed like such a huge piece of missing information.

"Um...Nessie?" Tory said with a shrug. She tried to explain how children born of human women and male vampires grew rather rapidly, though Eliza simply sat, slack jawed.

"So our cousin is dating a child in the body of an adult?" She shook her head, "What...the...fuck?" To Tory, it had simply been fate, a path to happiness for Jacob, a chance for him to both stay young forever and be with his imprint, yet to Eliza, it was just weird.

"She matured to fit her body's appearance if that helps?" Tory informed feebly. She had forgotten that to Eliza, Nessie was Bella's cousin, since they looked so similar in age it was the easiest excuse to give.

"And what's an immortal child?" Eliza pressed.

"So all vampires are the same age forever once they're turned, down to their personality and maturity. It's sort of like those stories in the news of kids who find their parent's gun and use it because they don't know any better. Imagine a five-year-old with a machine gun he uses out of instincts during a tantrum, scary dangerous. The Volturi uphold vampire law and no immortal children is a biggie. Both the kid and it's maker are killed if discovered, as well as anyone who helps them."

"Wait, so the Volturi came to kill the Cullens and Jake?" Eliza's head was spinning, she was about to ask more questions when the server appeared again and placed two cups of foaming coffee with sugar and a plate of cookies.

"Gratzi!" Tory said, half sure that was thank you in Italian. She waited until the waiter disappeared back into the resteraunt before she continued. "Well, the whole pack really, an imprint bond is a decree of protection, it makes them part of the family. The Cullens got a bunch of vampires together and the pack stood with them, they almost killed each other. If Alice hadn't been able to prove that Nessie was half vampire, they'd have slaughtered eachother."

"Damn...so what happened with you and Seth?" Eliza asked. Tory wanted to laugh, her sister had a habit of compartmentalizationing things, ignoring the fact that there was almost a war to focus on Tory's relationship.

"He told me I couldn't leave him because I was his imprint, his whole world and then he shifted into a wolf right in front of me for the first time. I freaked out and took off and he turned back into a human and came running after me. And I...I punched him in the face." Tory smiled sheepishly when Eliza burst into a fit of giggles. "What? You can't drop a bomb on that to save a relationship!"

"You find out Seth can turn into a wolf so you punch him in the face? At least you waited until he didn't have fur." Eliza laughed more as she stirred sugar into her coffee. "You felt bad scolding the dog for peeing on the carpet but your furry lover, you'll sucker punch."

"Hey, he's not a furry, he's a shapeshifter!" They both laughed at Tory's joke, "I flat put told him that imprint or not, I had to want to be with him, we had to be worthy of each other and work on our relationship if we were going to last."

"So you told the cosmos to go fuck itself, you wanted to want to be with him." Eliza's gaze turned thoughtful, the gears turning in her head.

"Basically. And ever since, we've been like a normal couple, we fight, we makeup, we work through our issues and spend time together because we want to, not because he can turn into a wolf." Tory leaned forward, knowing that no one could understand her but Eliza yet still wanting to seem supportive. "If you don't want to be with the kings, then you can come home, it's okay. We can figure out the whole turning blue thing on our own."

Pain flashed across Eliza's face the moment Tory mentioned leaving and she realized how stupid she sounded. Even when they fought, there was a tether connecting her to Seth, one her sister no doubt felt three fold.

"I...want to try to be with them but I can't live in the castle, too many people hearing every little thing. I mean, I can't even pee without a hundred vampires hearing it, makes a girl self conscious. And…" She continued in a whisper, more out of embarrassment than anything, "What if they can smell when I'm on my period? Gross!"

They both laughed at that, sipping on their coffees with mirthful smiles. "So we'll find you an apartment and you can try dating three guys at once. It'll be like the Bachellorette, only less staged!"

"Yeah," Eliza agreed, "And wayyyy hotter guys."

Tory grinned at that, the worry she felt for sister slowly disappearing.


End file.
